the ink-smudged skies
by 1-800-canyousavemydream
Summary: the volturi kings destroyed entire covens, ended vampire wars, and solved every vampire disaster to ever occur. they have never dealt with a stubborn, petty human for a mate. (featuring three volturi kings, their frustrating mate, and the entire vampire world gossiping.) [a story told in fragments.]
1. i

The cracks of the Volterra court bled.

The feast's last body fell through the drain, the grate's copper blood-bright and stained. Crimson-tinted teeth and mouths were the last remaining evidence of savagery left on the guards while the Kings folded themselves onto their thrones. Their spotless, designer suits molded to their graceful forms.

Aro's soot-black waves fell to his shoulders, the side-part sharp to the left and brushed aside. He stared at the double, mahogany doors as Heidi swayed through them, a sigh on his red lips as he pictured the monotonous, changeless days ahead of their coven. When would something truly exciting happen?

He longed for intrigue besides the bloodshed and senseless wars Caius advocated for. There was no news of specimens to acquire, no talents to collect, no covens to eradicate, no laws to uphold on a large scale, and no politics to play.

His guards lined the throne room, statuesque in their stillness as they waited for a break in their routine or a command from either himself, Caius, or Marcus.

After some time, a knock resounded heavily against the wooden doors.

He no longer counted the hours or days, his sense of time blanched by thousands of years of existing.

"Ah, Sofia. Come in, cara," Aro said, "what news do you have for us today?"

"A visitor, Master Aro." Their newest secretary bowed as a familiar face followed behind them.

The familiar face of Ainsley Fields appeared at the doors, her sprite-like form thin and wan. His thoughts slowly unfolded with his memories of her. Ainsley was a white-haired, ungifted nomad from England that travelled the world to avoid notice from others. An unexpected face, but not exciting enough to staunch the wound of boredom permeating their coven.

"Ah, wonderful! Ainsley, a visit after quite some time." He clasped his hands together. "We have not seen you since Jane and Alec became one with our coven."

The nomad twitched, the scent of spilled nectar heavy on her nose.

"I'm here to report a crime," she said, "a rogue newborn, unknown sire, is close to revealing the secret in Vancouver, British Columbia."

"I see," he said and stood. He held out his hand. "May you do me the honour?"

She nodded and placed her hand in his. How dull her thoughts were; full of feeding and bloodlust common in nomads, relocation plans, and nothing else of interest outside of what brought her to their court. He parsed through the memories filling her mind; the news and the human investigation of public deaths which brought her here with his typical meticulousness. He ignored the trite discomfort presented in the back of her mind, a typical reaction when one offered up their tedious thoughts to him.

Aro released her hand and hummed under his breath.

How he missed Carlisle and his intricate patterns and honesty.

"I see," he said. "I insist you remain within the walls of Volterra until the matter is settled. Santiago, lead her to our prepared rooms. There are matters we must settle."

A newborn causing trouble somewhere in the American continents.

How uninspiring.

"Demetri, Felix, investigate the matter," Aro said, "bring the perpetrator here for trial or eliminate him if necessary. I doubt the matter is significant. Do as you please."

His execution team disappeared through the doors, his orders heeded.

Aro sat back down, the marble of his throne molded into his stone-hewn body and his idle fingers tapped the alabaster armrest and his unblinking, milk-glossed red eyes wandered. How he yearned for some form of excitement or entertainment among the predictable trials and tribulations of his court in Volterra.


	2. ii

Picturesque summer mornings lingered in Vancouver long after the paleness of a clouded dawn absconded.

An unwrinkled, pristine book rested on Arlen's crossed legs as she sipped her iced Americano. Rose-gold sunglasses nestled in her night-dark hair and the thick waves spilled onto her thighs like a midnight ocean against her frame and her large, sandalwood brown eyes hid beneath smoky, thick lashes; the mischievous, feline gaze ran stark against her moonlit skin and eternal pout. Her yolk-yellow, cropped blouse pulled out the undertones of gold in her skin and revealed her defined midriff to the summer air, tight to her frame. The umbrella above her tea table shielded her from the unwanted sun's rays as she lost herself in the crisp white pages of her book.

A bag dropped down in front of her and she paused. Her bookmark slid into her book and the title, _Everything I Never Told You_, disappeared into her bag.

"You're already here!"

Min Chou, a close friend, beamed at her. Her chocolate brown hair, pin-straight and shoulder length, framed her sharp golden features and gorgeous, shining smile and puppyish, caramel gaze. She left her black leather bag on the tea table and sat across from Arlen, long and lean legs crossed over each other in a similar position.

"An hour ago," Arlen acknowledged. "Where's everyone else?"

"Parking." Min rolled her eyes.

"Which is horrible," Lila Tran announced herself, bold as always. "Elsie and Isaac are right behind me. Hyojung and Tao can't make it. Now, besides this little coffee shop, where are we going next?"

Lila's black eyes hid behind her aviator sunglasses but it was undoubtedly her with the vibrant purple hair tied up in a chic bun and her sleek, black, floral dress impeccable against her pale skin. Elsie Ng entered behind her, all boundless chestnut-brown waves pinned back and irritated expression almost cute with her doe brown eyes and pert nose scrunched up. She wore a contrasting white dress, stark against her glowing, golden-brown skin.

"Arlen?" Elsie asked.

"Don't ask me, this is the first time I've gone anywhere besides home and work in weeks," she said and dusted off her leggings.

"Where's Vince?" Isaac Kwon strolled in, tall and imposing but tampered by his gentle features and soft grey-brown eyes. He tugged his hand through his thick, black curls.

"No hello for me?"

"I visited yesterday," he said and sat down beside her, silky black dress shirt unbuttoned almost to the point of indecency.

"He worked the night shift at the morgue and he's doing another shift soon." Lila tugged her hair into a high ponytail. "So, he's probably sleeping."

"They're always so mean to the newbies," Min said mournfully.

"It's not like he'd be awake by now anyway." Arlen cracked her neck. "We're lucky if he twitches before noon."

"That's true." Elsie snickered.

"After shopping and hitting up the town, we should drop the cars off at Lila's place." Isaac stole Arlen's iced coffee and drank from it despite her glare. "So we can hit up the lounge tonight."

"You know, that's a line that spells the beginning of clownery for us," Arlen said.

Lila smirked. "That's the point of going out."

* * *

The bar and lounge they frequented preferred dim lighting.

Arlen reclined into the black leather love seat by Lila and squinted at her other friends as they sipped their drinks while she abstained with a mocktail in hand. The lounge's music smoothed over them and the other patrons mingled away from the little corner their little group of fools unofficially claimed as theirs, missing three people but still theirs. The sleek, glossy white table held their snacks and drinks while they sat around it and gossiped, complained, and generally soaked in each other's presence.

"God, don't you hate being an adult?" Arlen grumbled.

"Yes," Min said without hesitation.

Elsie nodded, furious. "I might just say fuck you to university and go to a technical college."

"Fuck adulthood." Lila rolled her neck. "Why did I want to grow up? I don't want to pay property tax or worry about bills or work eight hours a day at some boring job I hate after four years at uni. I can't even hold a stable relationship because I don't have the time."

"Ugh to all of it but relationships? Fuck me. I need to get back in the game," Isaac complained. "After Adrian, I need a new experience."

"I'll introduce you to some people I've met," Arlen promised, "I have the perfect match in mind."

"A man? A woman?" He brightened.

"Both."

"Someone is speaking my language." He held his hand over his heart.

"And we can always trust Arlen's judgement," Elsie said over the lip of her Long Island Iced Tea.

"Now that we've solved your love life, we need to talk about Arlen's. We need something fun to talk about!" Lila leaned closer towards the exasperated girl. "Well, anyone in your life?"

"No," she said, "and I'm busy."

"You choose to be busy," Min pointed out and wrinkled her nose, "you work for fun."

"Can't even use the excuse of 'I'm too young'." Isaac sprawled his legs. "You're nineteen now, no interest?"

"No interest in relationships," she corrected. "If I want to fly across the ocean tomorrow to Singapore because I want to, I'd have to tell someone. Anyway..."

Lila hummed. "Well, you did have some flings."

Elsie sighed and scooted closer to Min. She laid her head full of chestnut curls against the other girl's shoulder. "We can't relate can we, hm?"

"Disgustingly cute," Lila murmured.

Arlen shook her head and picked up an oyster. Lila scanned the entire lounge for the fourth time; she perked up before deflating and she followed Arlen's lead in eating a little snack from their table. Everyone else had seemed to notice despite the alcohol inhibiting their judgement. Min's brow furrowed before she settled into Elsie's side more comfortably.

"Oh, he's cute but I've seen better," Elsie commented.

Isaac followed her gaze and eyed up the other man before he scoffed. "Sure, but not my type and definitely not as hot as Vince."

"Or Arlen." Lila ran her fingers through her thick, night-black hair. A play at flirting.

She smirked and tapped the other girl's lips. "Or you."

Arlen glanced at the subject in question and found herself unenchanted by his grotesque, familiar beauty. The unnatural seamless, marble-smooth skin touched by an underlying glow akin to crushed diamonds untouched by light blurred over sharp, perfectly symmetrical features meant for distant admiration. Anything closer raised hairs, anything closer and any human's eyes would forcibly avert, unable to confront perfection so closely. His dark eyes stark against his pale skin and snowy hair but thankfully, he ignored their little group and focused on a giggling pair of girls.

A weight settled in her stomach but she ignored it.

* * *

Night settled on Vancouver like rain.

The city lights on her drive home reflected off the vehicles and the sleek, modern buildings as she drove across the Lion's Gate bridge to her home by the seaside, sectioned off from all neighbours and prying eyes through a tall hedge reinforced by a gate and wall. The metal gates opened for her and closed behind her SUV. She parked the car along the curving driveway and headed straight through the french doors of her home.

_"Tonight, another body was found in East Hastings—"_

"Vince," she called out as she headed for the unlit living room where lights flashed into the hallway.

"Here. Have you seen the news?"

A sole silhouette sprawled out on her navy-blue sectional. The TV's bright, LED screen illuminated the dark room. Muddy amber eyes rested on her in the dark and Vince jerked his head to the bright, LED screen illuminating the dark room. His glossy, black hair curled away from his face and his flawless, pale skin resembled the marble coffee table in the centre of the room. He sat up, perfectly sculpted features and lips set in a grimness suited to his saturnine face.

"I know," she said, "but the bigger question is, why are you in the dark waiting for me like a stalker?"

She flicked on the lights on and left her purse on the entryway table.

"Saving the environment," he said.

"My house is solar-powered, idiot. Did you feed Udon?"

"Yes, I fed your snake that doesn't like me at all."

"He doesn't like you because you're cold and dead." Arlen rolled her eyes. "He loves me."

"Did you see the news?" he repeated.

"Yes," she said.

"Any ideas?"

"Vince, I'm an interior designer and a model. I don't solve crimes or chase after crazies with my binders of paint swatches and furniture catalogues in my sponsored outfits."

"But you know," he pressed, "I'll find out anyway when I head to work. It's headed to my morgue."

She sighed and rifled through her coffee table drawers before she pulled out a tin of mints and popped one in her mouth. Her legs met the linen fabric of the couch. "It's a vampire but you knew that already." She pursed her lips at the blurred body wrapped in plastic on the screen.

"Are you sure?"

"I saw him today and you know I keep a tally of the vampires that enter the city. He's new, definitely, and red eyes."

"What does he look like?"

"White, white-blond hair, red eyes under green contacts, probably mid-twenties, and definitely prefers female victims."

He craned his neck to look at her. "How do you know so much about vampires?"

She rolled the mint against her teeth and stared at him out of the corner of her eyes. "How does anyone know anything?"

The news continued on in the background as the white lights above their heads lit the room and staved the dark night away as she rolled the tin of mints in her hand, the weight in her stomach heavier than ever. People like her never lived the quiet, untouched lives they deserved.

* * *

By the way, legal age in Canada is 18-19 depending on which province you live in. Please leave a review if you enjoyed!


	3. iii

When the venom re-birthed him, he almost lost himself to the flames.

In the madness, Arlen became his saving grace when he woke in a quaking shack of an abandoned ghost town hours from known civilization. She held all the answers in her hands. He remembered her large eyes in the dark, the calmness she exuded, and her soft voice as she explained to him what happened; his one tether to sanity (even if she never had hers) and his humanity. Not once had he itched to kill her, the thought of her blood coating his teeth never came to mind when she sat on a rock and patiently taught him how to hunt elk with a fresh set of clothes waiting on her lap. She stayed with him for weeks and somehow rehabilitated him into the person he once was.

She kept her secrets close to her heart, mouth locked with a lost key, but he never doubted her.

Arlen protected her friends and family and stuck her neck on the guillotine for them. She stayed with him during his lowest times, nonjudgmental and patient with a well of knowledge carved deep into her mind, and now, she followed him into the depths of his personal agenda against a murderer he didn't know.

He shook off his rain dampened hair, messenger bag slung over his shoulder as he opened the door to Arlen's overindulgent mansion but he stayed with her more often than not so he didn't complain. She waited for him in the living room, impatience coiled in her like a ready-to-strike serpent. A steaming cup of tea and plate of macarons sat on the coffee table, untouched.

"Well?" She crossed her arms and leaned into the couch cushions.

"Drained," he said and handed her the files he copied and snuck out. "Savagely. Lots of wounds like an amateur."

She shook her head, brow pinched. "He's not a newborn," she said. "Too controlled and careful. Too specific of a target. Newborns run rampant with their thirst. Spilled blood causes unstoppable frenzies."

"You said I'm a newborn," Vince pointed out as he put his bag and coat away. "I haven't gone crazy yet."

"My gift stifles your thirst and when I'm not around, you're hanging out with dead bodies in a cold place with no living people for company."

Vince paused before he sat down. "Did you need to make it sound so bad?"

She smirked like the bastard she was. "Am I wrong?"

Arlen flipped through the files, expressionless. "I'm sure it's him," she said, "but you'll investigate first and if we're right, we'll need to lure him out."

"Lure him out?" he echoed, questioning.

She pursed her lips and her eyelashes fluttered, the inky-black fans spiked over her pale cheeks. "I've got an idea."

"Arlen, I can crush metal in my palm and smashed concrete with a flick of my finger. I ran us to Northern British Columbia faster than a car. You said all vampires are the same, what can you do to him? He's not a regular person."

"What can I think of and what can you do," she corrected. "How bait-like do I look? If I extend my leg like this, do I look delicious enough?"

"Crazy bitch."

"This crazy bitch is about to help you kill a vampire because you have an over-inflated sense of honor and justice." She wagged her finger. "So, shut your mouth and listen. I've got a plan."

He rolled his eyes but submitted himself to her craziness.

Who else would help him kill a vampire?

* * *

Deep in the heart of Volterra, Caius stole to solitude among his creations.

He stilled himself among the masterpieces in progress. His eyes traced each stroke left behind by the hairs of the paint brush, the minutest of details sketched out beneath his unrelenting gaze as he pored over his collections. Violets splayed the edges of one, the cool tones sharp against the white, and blood-red slashed across another, a mosaic of a battle he still tasted on his tongue. The gods blessed Aro and Marcus with the gift and left him with nothing but his ambition, bitterness, and thirst for battle.

And this one gift.

For a man who was born and bred into destruction, the gods left him the ability to create in his quiescence.

Venom coated his mouth at the thought of the gods.

He never imagined himself stagnant; him, the golden gladiator, baptised by a deathlessness stealing glory and fire in spades.

Without ambition, anger brewed deep in his chest.

The iron splinter of fear hidden by the churning fires.

* * *

I'll be frank with everyone. On behalf of many fanfiction writers, we write for ourselves, true, but we post for you. If we don't get reviews, we'll assume that there's no point in rereading our work to slightly edit and post on fanfiction. Many of us really do just write and keep it to ourselves if we think no one else is interested in it.


	4. iv

Papers and file folders scattered over the white marble coffee table.

The stark white ceiling loomed over Arlen as her neck curved to the sofa's edge. A constellation, night sky mural might add interest to the room without disrupting the cool, sleek aesthetic she chose for her living room or perhaps an oil painting recreating a movie still scene of flowers. She tapped her fingers; there were so many possibilities. Vince set down a steaming cup of tea in the sole empty spot among their research. She stretched out and sipped at the citrus concoction, warm against her bottom lip. The honeyed sweetness coated her teeth and tongue.

"Yuzu honey tea," she guessed.

"Correct." He picked up one of the folders and skimmed through it, amber eyes untouched by exhaustion. "You should sleep."

Arlen shrugged. "Have you ever seen a Molotov in action?" she asked, abrupt.

"You told me to stay away from fire," he said.

She laughed and set down her tea. "You don't need to get one thrown at you to see it."

He rolled his eyes. "Not everyone is out and about getting Molotovs thrown at them."

"I haven't had them thrown at me...yet. Poor man's bomb aside, did I ever tell you about this girl I befriended when I shouldn't have?"

"I hate when one of your story begins with that," he muttered.

"Well, when you put it like that, long story shortened." She reached under the coffee table and shifted her hand around before metal sang and clicked. An empty gun rested in her hands. "I made friends and now I have a gun. No need to steal any over the border so you don't have to worry about that any longer."

"No bullets?" Vince furrowed his brow.

Arlen patted the coffee table. "Gun safety."

He sat on the couch and crossed his legs, head against a cushion. "You sure you can catch his attention?"

"I know men like him. If I act right, he won't be able to resist the hunt." She set down the gun on the table and slotted herself beside him, tiny against his larger frame. Arlen shifted until she was comfortable. "He likes to cause pain and target what he thinks will easily break but he's evolving. He wants more of a challenge. Something or someone that'll take time to break but completely afraid. It's really not difficult to make people want to kill you."

"That's concerning," he said and draped his arm over her shoulders. "You ever going to tell me how you know all this?"

Arlen hummed and played with the ends of her hair. Vince sighed.

"The plan begins when I catch his attention and leave my scent around," she said, "then you'll take me across the city and we'll lead him away on a little chase where the merry-go-round ends with him on fire."

He ran his fingers through her bangs. "Have we decided where we'll kill him?"

"He'll lose the scent trail if we choose Bamberton due to the sea water and I don't think he's a tracker." She frowned and fiddled with her phone. "Can people stop inhabiting ghost towns? They were abandoned for a reason and they're making our job more difficult. We just want an easy place to kill someone, is that too much to ask for?"

"Phoenix?" he suggested and tapped the screen. "It's in the middle of no where, there's mountains, no one to hear anything and if they do, I doubt they'll investigate unless they're prime idiots. It's close enough that we'll be in and out at a reasonable time."

"We can always be in and out in a reasonable amount of time," she said and gave him a flat look.

He smirked and reached over to turn on the television. "So, you answering any of my questions?"

"One."

"You smell good but not edible and sometimes your scent disappears. Why?"

"I'm not too different from you. How else do you think I managed to teach you how to control your powers?"

Vince leaned further back, rock-hard arm cushioning his head. "Even when you answer my questions, you're so vague."

"It's a good choice. Phoenix," she decided. "Now, we just need to catch his attention and let him hunt me down."

"Go to sleep," he said. "I'll never understand how you're so calm about this."

"Maybe I'll tell you one of these days." Her fingers twined into her hair, the gesture innocent if no one took into account the false merriment in her soft smile.

* * *

The sun's unforgiving light unveiled all the flaws of bland modern architecture in metropolitan cities.

Demetri rolled his neck as he stood by the window of their accommodations and overlooked the seaside city their Masters dispatched them to while Felix lazed on the chaise and watched the news of the latest victim left out on the streets to rot, drained of blood. He itched to track down the newest assignment but they had to wait for nightfall in this summer city struck sick with the light and ocean breeze. In four hours, they could stalk the rooftops and track down the scent of a vampire.

A blink of an eye in their lifespan.

And a blink of an eye it was.

The city darkened into a neon playground meant for the nightlife that made the humans so vulnerable to their kind. He slipped to the roof with Felix and scanned as they flew over the city. Vampires, of all kinds, passed through this city often enough but rarely did they enter major city hubs in fear of their loss of control. A nomad among the humans? Such a strong scent was easy enough to track and once he caught even the slightest signature of their mind, he could track them to the ends of the Earth from the Arctic Oceans to Antarctica.

Felix hunted with a grace many underestimated of a man his size.

"I believe we've found him," Felix said.

The sharp visage, the blood red eyes hidden behind thin contacts, the fresh scent of newly spilt blood but such an ease amongst the humans. Demetri believed they had found their target but something was wrong about him. He moved too carefully, killed to with a discrimination newborns couldn't have, and he walked among the humans. He suspected this was the case but the confirmation left him satisfied.

"Interesting," Demetri commented, "our informant was incorrect. Not a newborn at all."

Felix grinned. "Master Aro will forgive us if he happens to die, won't he?"

Demetri rolled his eyes. "I suspect Master Aro wants the matter dealt with to our discretion. One nomad death matters not. Justice will be served regardless of what we choose. He dies here or he dies in Volterra."

"Perfect." Felix's pearled teeth glinted, knife-sharp grin in place as his bloodthirstiness took over.

* * *

He stalked the streets of Metro Vancouver.

The night hid the crushed diamond glow of his skin, the aberration unnoticed from the neon lights afflicted the night's pretend gloom. Humans bustled, drunken or sober, but annoying as a swarm of insects buzzing around him. A snarl hid deep in his chest. No one appealed to him. Their blood too thin, too pliant, too easy to drain-his teeth ached to sink into resistance.

He grunted, arm purposely giving way among the crowd.

Wide, fluttering brown eyes caught his.

A pretty little doll glanced up at him; the quickest flash of fear filtered through her gaze before she turned her head full of ink-black waves and fled into the night crowd. Her lithe but athletic form, clad in black, blended amongst the humans. Gone in seconds. He sniffed the air and the arm she bumped into; in her wake, she left the faintest scent of peonies and roses, almost overshadowed by the faint oceanic breeze and smoke and recreational drugs of Metro Vancouver that wrinkled his nose.

He breathed deeper this time.

How quick disappointment shifted into a thrill.

* * *

consider it a blanket statement that i appreciate any and all reviews (directed at me or not), no matter the language (i'll find a way to translate), as long as it isn't demanding updates.


	5. v

A night thread wove through Vancouver.

Arlen flew, a whisper of wind between the sprawled skyline and highrises and neon nightlife of downtown. She whirled into Eihu Lane and Vince caught her in his rock-hard grip. He held onto her like a lifeline and his eyes gleamed like amber caught in the sun.

"Let's go," she breathed.

"As you wish, young miss," he muttered.

"Shut up."

* * *

The nomad prowled the city's edge.

Ruby-red eyes flickered. His limbs remained loose but his body tensed as he took in the crowd. They tracked him from rooftops to the eagle's perch as they shadowed his every move but he walked with no direction, aimless but focused.

"Think he caught us?"

"No," Demetri said, "I believe he's hunting a target yet he hasn't found the trail."

"A human?" Felix grunted. "If he's hungry, why not drain the ones in the alley?"

"A connoisseur." Demetri hazarded it as a possibility. All his victims had a little picturesqueness about them in the photos before their deaths; something corruptible the wicked yearned to crush between their fingers. "He would not be the first we have met."

"It's always the crazy bastards."

He agreed silently but this was the first missions in decades the Masters assigned them with the slightest hint of action. A nomad was no coven extermination but it was enough to slake his thirst.

The nomad absconded the city limits, whirlwind left in his wake.

"Finally," Felix muttered.

* * *

The nomad travelled without reprieve, more gleeful by the minute, while Demetri and Felix followed from a distance.

Something prickled his thoughts.

A human managed to traverse such a distance in less than an hour? A automobile, no matter how fast, wasn't an option either. There were no other vampire scents in the area nor were there any other living things other than the stray bird, rodent, deer, or elk. There was more to the prey than met the eyes. The pines and firs and hemlocks unravelled but they trailed after the nomad's single-minded hunt. The thrill rendered the fool blind to his surroundings.

They landed in the trees on the mountain side, silent as shadows, and Demetri crouched on the branch, weightless.

Their target lingered at the edge of a clearing and he sucked in a lungful of air, almost relishing it. His leather jacket blended into the night where his snow-blond hair acted as a beacon to announce his arrival. The prey stood in the center of the clearing, bag on the ground and gun in hand. Her pale skin glowed under the full moon's half light, and her ink-black hair fell over her slight form in a high tail, and several pieces framed her narrowed catlike eyes. She blended into the night, clad in all black, skin tight clothes.

Demetri's brow pinched. The girl knew the nomad followed her?

"Hello, hello," the nomad crooned. "I didn't expect you to dress up for me."

"Don't worry, it's not for you." The gun remained trained onto him and the girl's lips curled; either in amusement or disgust, he couldn't decipher in the dark. "I always look like a snack."

Demetri smirked at the audacity the girl wore.

"Oh, you're a funny one."

"That's me. Hilarious."

"And do you have a name, pretty girl?" the nomad purred.

"Not polite to ask for a name without introducing yourself."

"Ezra, love," he said. "Now, yours?"

"Arlen. Any reason why you followed me from downtown Vancouver to this ghost town in the middle of the mountains or did you think this was a great idea for a meet-cute? Very serial killer of you if so."

He laughed, bone-white grin exposed. "The most fun one I've had yet."

"I thought it was you killing those girls." Her chest rose and fell with every slow breath as she steadied her arms and the handgun. The weak human heart in her chest calmed it's beat. She dug her feet into the ground. "Thanks for the confirmation."

"Stupid little thing," Felix remarked, amused. "Useless to fight a vampire and taunting one? She'll deserve that death."

Demetri frowned. He leaned back into the tree and waited for the nomad to drain the girl. His last meal. All vampires subject to Volturi justice never escaped with their lives when the Masters left discretion up to the likes of Felix and his even more bloodthirsty comrades within the guard. But something else needled the edge of his thoughts. The girl's implied knowledge of their world and unnatural speed in arriving to the area aside, the calmness she exuded in her situation bordered on apathetic. She died tonight anyway but perhaps they should interfere and keep her alive to discover how she knew about their world. He brushed his musings off.

The girl would die and they would accomplish their mission.

The girl breathed and shot straight at the neck. The bullet lodged into the nomad's skin, the stone surface fractured outwards from the impact point and the metal splintered. Shrapnel hit the ground. His flesh knitted together. Blank brown eyes blinked, unfazed and immovable.

Demetri narrowed his eyes. "His survival does not surprise her."

"What are you thinking?" Felix glanced at his partner from the corner of his eyes.

"She knows too much."

She shot the nomad again.

"It won't work," Ezra called out. His crimson eyes glinted, hunger-ridden. "I'm indestructible but you can keep trying. It's futile."

The girl fired at him in succession. His neck resembled a glass catastrophe but his skin continued to regenerate after each bullet. Demetri kept a close but disinterested eye on the one-sided fight while Felix gleefully witnessed the unusual event; the girl's struggle to survive was meaningless. There was one outcome. Death for the girl and execution for the nomad for breaking their laws. Perhaps there was no purpose in digging deeper than intended. Her knowledge would die with her.

The girl's gun clicked, emptied of any ammunition. Her heartbeat remained slow and steady, unafraid.

"Now," she said.

Another vampire appeared from nowhere and tore the nomad's head off. The girl pulled out a bottle with a soaked cloth from her bag, lighter in hand, and she set it ablaze. She smashed the bottle into the decapitated nomad. A fire-dance consumed his body and the flames roared louder than lions and the burning singed the ground. The scent of ashes consumed the fresh air. The new vampire dropped the head on the burning body.

Felix exchanged glances with Demetri. The tracker pursed his lips; a human surviving a direct conflict with a vampire neared impossible and they hadn't known about this vampire's existence. This mission grew more complicated the less they acted.

The girl jutted her hip out, eyes dancing in the firelight. "What did I say?"

"Was shooting him even necessary?"

"Distraction and ease of head removal." She tossed her hair.

The animal drinker sighed. "Yes, yes. Bow to the all-knowing. I didn't know we were flammable like that, though. I guess there was a reason why you warned me to stay away from fire. Premium fireworks we are. Maybe I'll die for a Canada Day celebration."

"You're a newborn." She rolled her eyes. "You're not supposed to know everything. So, what was it like seeing your first Molotov?"

"Underwhelming."

"You don't know how to appreciate a true light show."

"A newborn?" Felix whispered. "He's rather ...tame."

The animal drinker froze and turned in the direction of their voice. He grasped the girl by the arm. "Arlen, someone is here."

"Fuck," the girl swore, "we should've picked a more remote location. Cassiar might've been a better choice. Who the fuck travels up there by choice?"

The newborn sucked in a breath. "They're vampires."

Demetri jerked his head towards the pair and Felix launched off their tree at his directive. The two of them flew through the air and crossed through the trees. Their feet thudded against the ground. He spotted the pair through the heavy brush and night foliage, their features clear, but he couldn't catch the flavor of their minds to track.

The girl's eyes shot wide open at the sound and grabbed the animal drinker. "We have to go."

"Where?"

"Home, now!"

The two Volturi guards broke through the treeline but before they knew it, the pair vanished from the clearing. Felix growled but Demetri picked up the dirt, rubbed it in his hands, and sniffed the air. Nothing but the old, packed earth, trees, and ashes.

"Their scent trail is gone."

* * *

Dewy grass and freshly watered bushes cushioned their fall.

The devil's hour darkened the sky, dawn no where in sight. Arlen stood on shaky knees like a newborn doe as she pushed herself up against the oak tree in her backyard. Vince laid on the ground, eyes on the stars, and despite his lack of need for air, he sucked in deep breaths. She crawled over to sit next to him.

"Did you see what they looked like?" Arlen breathed. She gripped his arms. "Vince, you need to tell me now."

"No." He shook his head. "Why does it matter?"

"It matters." She rolled the words over in her head, unable to explain in a satisfactory way. "Why do you think vampires don't just rage and run rampant everywhere? Why hasn't humanity discovered vampirism on a worldwide scale? All worlds are governed by some kind of law and the vampires have their own. They're dangerous, they punish without discrimination, there is no forgiveness in the walls of their empire. And that's what it is. An empire. Every vampire answers to them when the time comes."

"There's laws?"

"Several but the one that matters to us is that humans cannot live with the knowledge of vampires."

"But you knew about this even before some fucker bit me and made me into a bloodsucker."

"That won't matter to them but you have an advantage. They can't ever catch you and the Volturi collect vampires with powers so you can disappear forever or they'll allow you to live and join them."

"But what about you?"

She said nothing.

"Arlen, we have lives outside of this," he said, "what about our other friends? What about the lives we built? Does none of that matter?"

"I didn't ask for this to happen!" she snapped softly. "If I had it my way, I'd be living my life in peace and quiet and somehow forget all about this world. I'm here because you got bit and wanted to save some lives which is commendable if it didn't get us thrown under the bus."

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It doesn't matter anymore," she said, "no changing the past. We find a solution or the solution to the problem is avoid them until they forget about is which is unlikely."

"Do you have a plan?"

"I had several back up plans made when you were first bitten. You think I didn't predict you dragging me into some clownery as a vampire? I did." She shook her head. "I didn't ever plan for the Volturi though."

"Your plans? Care to explain?"

"You'll find out when you need to."

* * *

Please read & review!


	6. vi

The morning sun glazed Didyme's garden's pale yellow.

Every green leaf and stem glinted as he lingered among the high bushes his long deceased love planted with her lithe fingers during the first centuries in Volterra. He had wandered into the gardens after the memory of her returned to him but something nagged incessantly at his instincts when he left his personal paper-strewn study. His gift twisted and writhed beneath his skin like a shedding snake. He sighed and sat down upon the stone bench set by the grave of his beloved, her ashes deep beneath the earth in a urn of his own making. He could hear her laughter in the breeze and feel her fingers still dancing over his skin or in his long, shoulder-length hair. Some days it hurt to even look Aro in the face for he carried the slightest features that Didyme held boldly.

"Oh, Didyme, how I miss you," he whispered.

His gift continued to rend his senses but he had no explanations despite his research and even the ghost of his late love could not soothe him.

The summer winds drifted through the gardens.

His grief hummed in his chest, a familiar song among the flowers.

* * *

Darkness draped over the Volturi's private library despite the day beyond their castle's stone walls.

Few windows allowed light in and the hints revealed floating dust. Hand-carved mahogany wood shelves held many tomes while the flat sides depicted many ancient and classic Grecian and Roman plays. Warm red velvet chairs scattered around a small corner where two of the Volturi kings analyzed the newest additions to their collections gathered by their many collections from all over the world. Aro lounged on his preferred velvet chaise, legs crossed, and he held a book from the Ancient Egyptians in his hands as he puzzled over it's origins. Perhaps he should visit Amun, he had not seen the man since he liberated Demetri from him.

A knock sounded at the wooden doors and reverberated throughout the room.

Ah, as if his thoughts were summons.

Renata appeared from the darkness of a corner. "Demetri and Felix have returned, Master Aro, and they wish to give a report."

"Send them in, Renata. I assume their mission was successful. They always are."

His shield bowed her head and headed for the door. His tracker and executioner appeared at the library doors and appeared before their Kings, unruffled by their trip.

"Master Aro." Demetri bowed his head. "The situation with the nomad is resolved."

"Wonderful. Well done," he complimented. "Now, we may allow Ainsley to leave."

"Before that, Master Aro, the mission had complications," Felix elaborated after a moment's hesitation.

"Complications?" Caius shut his books. His narrowed eyes held a palpable fury like an animal's tensed body before it attacked. "How is it possible for there to be complications over such a simple task? Eliminate the nomad or retrieve them. They are burned, are they not?"

"He is, Master Caius, but the complication did not arise from the nomad as we did not eliminate him. Another had the honor before we had the chance."

Aro uncrossed his legs and stood. Demetri offered his hand with a bow of his head. Aro grasped it and parsed through the memories with an devouring, apathetic eye until the girl appeared. Her sandstorm eyes caught the half-moon's light among their hard, relentless depths and her ink-black tresses curled into her frame as the sheer recklessness and foolishness of her left the weapon steady in her arms. An interesting mortal among the many cattle, but she would not last against any of their kind.

Until she did with a blaze broken from a bottle and the help of a newborn with a gift he had yet to acquire.

He let go of Demetri's hand.

There was only one choice.

"Well?" Caius snapped.

"A human exists and is aware of our kind. Enough to kill the nomad after he hunted her with aid from a newborn, brother."

"What?" his brother hissed. "And did this newborn inform her of our kind?"

"I believe he did not," Aro confided.

"We need the girl and her source of information." Caius bristled at the thought anyone disobeying their laws with such ease and carelessness but Aro understood his brother to the marrow. He wished for something interesting to capture their attention once more and this potential for violence rushed delight through his veins.

He, too, found himself yearning for a little excitement.

"I agree. Demetri, Felix, retrieve the girl," Aro ordered. "Her companion, if you are able but he is not required. We will obtain his talents soon enough."

Demetri hesitated. "I have the barest grasp of the newborn's mind, Master, but something leaves me unable to track the girl."

"Find her. Begin with Vancouver," Caius demanded.

Aro waved his guards away and sat back down while his brother fumed in his seat, much easier to anger than usual, but he dismissed it. There were much more interesting matters to focus on. Demetri's thoughts revealed much; his inability to pick up the trail her mind left, scentless, reckless, but calculated. He parsed through each memory; he savored them, took note of each second, and clasped them between greedy hands ready to split them apart.

And the girl's eyes under the moonlight lingered at the forefront of his thoughts.

* * *

Sometimes, Arlen longed to stay at home for days without human contact.

She loved basking in the natural light pouring into her home from the windows and skylight as a low tune played and glided over her. She had planted flowers on her window sills, around the house borders along with several herbs, and once Vince regained his ability to not kill her plants from rough handling he could help like he used to. Speaking of Vince, he lazed on her sofa and glared at her snake tank in, and she padded from the kitchen to the glass masterpiece tucked away in the corner of the living room. A grey-lavender snake laid out on it's heating rock but it's head perked up when she strolled closer and bent down.

"Udon," Arlen cooed and put her arm in. The ball python crawled into her hand and twisted his tail around her wrist as she picked him up. She rubbed his head and he watched her with his beady, black eyes placidly. "How are you? Are you excited for your feeding tomorrow? You're so clean today, how was your bath?"

Vince rolled his eyes as he watched her from the couch. "Arlen, forget about your snake. You still haven't told me about your plans."

"Stop being so rude to my snake. He did nothing wrong." She set Udon back down in his tank and he slithered to his rock, a giant flat noodle among the foliage she installed in the style of a little jungle with a few rocks and a waterbath inside. "I'll have to move him to the tank by my room. Won't I? You're always so excited to see me!"

"You're insane."

"I know!"

She washed her hands in the kitchen sink. "Vince, do you trust me?"

"Yes," he said.

No hesitations, no doubts, everything laid out on the table with his warm amber eyes. She jumped over the coffee table and sat down beside him.

"Listen, I can't tell you right now. It's not safe but when you need to know, you'll know. I'm the only one who can know until we can act."

"Fuck, Arlen, why do you have to put it like that?"

"I'm like you," she reminded him.

"I know, I know," he muttered.

Her doorbell rang and Arlen startled, not having heard the sound in so long, and her brow pinched. No one rang her doorbell without ringing her gate entrance and she never opened that for anyone she didn't know. There was only one answer since no one but Vince could scale her walls without alerting her security system.

"Arlen," Vince hissed, "they smell like the vampires from the other day."

"Shit." Her thoughts flew through her mind, faster than a cheetah on the hunt. "Okay. That's fine. We'll open the door and say hello."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Vince almost shouted.

"Vince, trust me, it's better this way. We can't outrun them and no matter what we do, they'll look for us. This is the only way we might have a chance at a normal life."

She headed for her front door and opened it, resigned to her fate.

At her doorstep were two, tall statuesque men carved from rock. One was a classic Grecian beauty of lean musculature, styled champagne-brown hair, and chalky olive skin with deep burgundy eyes boring into her though he looked much shorter than the gigantic man by his side. The giant towered and his black hair fell around his slightly darkened eyes, stark against his pallid olive skin. He blocked out the sunlight and she had to crane her head to look at his face properly. The high planes of his cheeks, strong nose, and sharp, deep-set eyes made an intimidating man if it weren't for his curled lips like a Cheshire grin.

"Hello," Arlen greeted with a painfully bright smile. "What brought you to my doorstep which you could only reach if you jumped over the wall surrounding my residence?"

"I am Demetri of the Volturi coven," the shorter man answered.

The giant looked down at her with his stoic red eyes. "I am Felix of the Volturi coven."

Arlen stepped aside and allowed them to enter her house. "You already invited yourselves to my home anyway, why not come inside? Take off your shoes please."

They acquiesced and exchanged glances with one another but Arlen ignored it and led them to the living room where Vince bristled on the couch. She shot him a glare and he met it fiercely with his own.

"Please, take a seat." Arlen gestured. "May I ask why you scaled over my walls?"

The two vampires sat down, their long limbs stretched out. Their black suits with red trims tucked and bespoke with the careful detailing differing from each. Demetri's had a quaintness while Felix's had more bold detailing with a dark red.

"An interesting thing," Demetri said, "an incident at the top of a mountain and you escaped our planned introduction at the time. A shame, truly, for we had wished to satisfy our curiosity."

"Are we really playing this game?" Vince asked flatly.

"Impatient newborns," Demetri sighed.

Felix grinned, shark-like. "Let the man speak, Demetri."

"You still haven't said why you're here," Arlen reminded.

The giant leaned back into her cushions. "You have knowledge about our kind, that's a certainty, but what do you know about the Volturi?"

Arlen hummed and Vince grasped her wrist, eyes hard, but she sent Felix a glowing smile. Her eyes remained blank and untouched by her smile.

"What do you think I know about the Volturi?"

Felix chuckled. "Answering with a question? A typical evasion but I'll answer your questions, girl. We believe you know enough and that is already too much."

"Our Masters sent us to retrieve you," Demetri said and his gaze latched onto her with a disconcerting intensity. "We have never failed them but the Volturi always prefer willingness and civility."

"Just me?"

"Your companion's presence was requested if possible but not required."

She crossed her legs. "I'll come with you without any resistance if you leave him be."

Vince's gripped tightened over her arm. "I won't agree to that, Arlen."

"That's not your choice," she said before she turned to the two vampires. "So, how did you find us?"

Demetri smirked. "Your newborn friend is a difficult man to forget."

Arlen blinked placidly and her smile turned bland. She hadn't managed to protect them in time to prevent a trail from Vince's mind but she would rectify that soon enough once she could beneath their notice. The two vampires smirked, their shiny teeth on display, and their red eyes trailed over her. Felix's eyes lingered particularly long over her neck but she knew it was a play. Vince, on the other hand, snarled at them. She shut her eyes and grabbed his hand. His furious stare shifted to her and if she didn't have her pride, she would've begged him to calm down for a moment before he ruined everything.

"Vince, my house took one year to perfect. I'll take off your arm and beat you with it if you destroy any part of it," she said.

He shot the other vampires a look but sat down at the edge of the sofa, readied to bolt and grab Arlen with him at any moment.

She sighed. "Excuse us for a moment, gentleman, we're going to have a talk. I give you my word that I won't run. You'll track Vince down, anyway."

Demetri and Felix exchanged glances.

"You may have your privacy. Think of it as an extension of faith," Demetri said.

"Thank you," she said and stood up.

She strolled to the backyard and Vince followed her out, reluctant.

Arlen whirled around and grabbed his hands.

"They'd hear me anyway so I'm not going to whisper." She tightened her grip over his hands and she stared into his eyes. Her long-sleeves covered the intertwined fingers and palms almost pressed together; Vince's eyes widened. "I'm going with them to their Masters whether you agree or not but it'll be alright."

"Arlen, they're dangerous. They'll kill you," he said and held her hands tighter. "Do I have to beg you to save yourself instead of me? Is that what it'll take?"

"No, Vince. I won't change my mind no matter what you do." She shook her head, hair flying into her face.

"Maybe we can run."

"Vince. You can go. No, you have to. I'm not the only one anymore and I can't run."

He blinked slowly and his jaw clenched. He nodded and took a step backwards, hands fisted, and he disappeared with a slight breeze. The grass where he stood was minutely disturbed but nothing else hinted to the fact he once stood there. She sucked in a breath; this was the first time in a long time that she wouldn't have Vince with her but she had no choice. They had forced her into a corner but she still had a chance.

Arlen stepped back inside her house and faced the two vampires standing by her dining room table. "Well, do I need to worry about packing?"

"We shall wait until night falls," Demetri said.

"That didn't answer my question, you know."

"You can pack." Felix shrugged. "Might be pointless."

Arlen inclined her head and ignored the last words he said.

Her plans whirled in her mind as she sat down at the dining table and decided against packing.

It was already done, anyway.

* * *

The North Shore mountains overlooked Vancouver in all of it's glory.

Vince's legs hung over the edge of a steep cliff but he sat down and finally unclenched his hands to reveal a crumpled up piece of paper. He unravelled the small ball with careful hands and stared at Arlen's familiar, elegant hand swift over the stark white paper.

_Princess Mononoke is a great movie and feed Udon, I don't care if he hates you._

What a crazy fucking girl.

But that crazy girl was his best friend and he had to feed her snake.

* * *

Yes! Vince's ability is teleportation and Arlen has one as well. It's not spectacular like Vince's but it's useful. Also, the leaders are dramatic and care too much about aesthetic. You think those outfits and the organization came about naturally? No. They PLANNED those cloaks and gold jewellery and the red association. Why does that matter? You'll see.


	7. vii

The jet their coven owned was a sleek and slender thing.

The strange girl their Masters sent them to retrieve walked in front of them, unbothered by their presence, and glided up the stairs. She strode through the large aisles of the jet and sat down without hesitation. She pulled a book out of her beg and folded her lean legs into a figure four. The jet's leather sofas and seats dwarfed her small frame as she laid out her book on the personal table.

"Most humans are not so complaint when joining us," Felix commented as he sat adjacent to her.

"Do you have a habit of picking on people smaller than you?" she retorted and rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid. I know what I'm capable of, what you're capable of, and how it'll end. It'd be real _intelligent_ of me to try and fight a seven foot giant who can grab me with one hand and crush me with a flex of his fingers. We'll also be on a giant tube in the air so my means of escape flip between immediate death or impending doom. So, I'll be sitting right here, thank you."

Demetri quirked a brow as he sat across the girl. "That did not deter your actions with the nomad."

She shrugged and looked out the window. "When will we get there?"

"We land in Florence after midnight."

"What an exact time frame," she said.

He smirked and leaned back into his seat as they prepared for take off but it was not long after they reached the skies that the human found the monotony unsustainable. She stretched and fixed her pale floral blouse before she dropped her book back into her bag.

"Is there a bed here? It's a stupid question but I'll still ask it since you don't sleep." She flounced out of her seat and into the center of the jet. "You know, I can be really annoying if I'm loopy from sleep-deprivation."

"You may sleep in the room provided in the back."

"Oh, thank god," she said and wandered off without a second glance back. "I can take a nap."

What an odd girl.

Demetri shook his head and remained in his seat.

The girl did not truly matter for their plans, no, their true goal was the teleporter and when he attempted to save his friend, they would trap him with the contingency of her survival.

Her strangeness aside, she was tolerable bait.

* * *

Arlen woke up from her twelve hour nap in the middle of landing like a ghoul in snake-skin.

She hurried to the bathroom on the jet when they landed with her bag to brush her teeth and rinse her mouth of the disgusting aftertaste of her nap. Her blouse and leggings were exchanged for a trial-worthy outfit of plain black slacks, a loose white blouse with a tie-collar, and a delicate gold choker. She wouldn't want the Volturi Kings to feel offended for a peasant to grace their court.

"Come, girl." Demetri beckoned when she stepped out. "We are short on time."

She rolled her eyes. "I see some vampires suffer from memory loss in their _eternal immortality_."

Felix snickered but kept his mouth shut as he stepped behind her. His giant stature loomed overhead like a particularly threatening storm-cloud.

"A word of advice," Demetri said, "our Masters do not take cheek as well as we do."

Arlen brushed her slacks off. "Don't worry too much about me," she said cheerfully, "I've dealt with many people similar to them. I know how to shut up."

The two vampire guards examined her more closely after the statement but she feigned ignorance as she allowed them to guide her to a luxury SUV with tinted windows and they directed her, their delicate package, into the backseat. She folded her legs again and sat quietly for the entire hour drive at alarming speeds from Florence to the outskirts of Volterra until they parked in some dark garage with several other luxury vehicles inside. The Volturi lived forever and probably cultivated enough wealth to buy several countries, what were a few luxury vehicles? But she frowned at the excess and pried herself out of the soft, buttery leather seats she sunk into.

Demetri placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her out into the dark morning where the sun had yet to peek out of the horizon. They walked through several alleys lined with small cars and bicycles before they stood behind a palace. Felix bent down to open an iron grate and revealed a pitch-black darkness.

Arlen stared down into the manhole. "If you make me try and land that jump, we probably won't even make it to wherever we're headed because my pathetic human body will crumble with my two broken legs or you'll have to scrape me off whatever surface the ground is made from."

Demetri chuckled. "Worry not," he said and grabbed her around the waist. "You are thin enough."

She yelped when he leapt straight into the hole with her in his arms. He deposited her onto the ground, none too gently, and brushed himself off of what he must have perceived as dirty human. Felix landed beside her with unbelievable grace for someone his size and the two vampires led her into the maze beneath the city with practised ease until they reached a ladder.

They didn't bother making her climb as Felix gathered her without warning and jumped up through the hole above. She squeaked when he dropped her without fanfare and glared up at him. She dusted herself off before they dragged her past a human sitting behind a desk, their secretary she assumed. Arlen stared at her; she was insanely pretty with sharp but delicate features and bright green eyes, her face was like a masterful sketch in the making.

She stood in front of the mahogany doors leading to royalty.

The Volturi Kings waited for her behind them.

* * *

The pretty little human avoided looking up as she entered.

For a moment, he wished to wrench her chin up so he could see the sandstorm eyes that haunted his thoughts.

The sweetest scent wafted and enchanted his senses; Demetri's memory of a scentless, intriguing, pale waif in a half-moon's glancing light rewound into something livelier, more fierce. Roses, peonies, and hints of vanilla entrapped him but venom didn't erupt in his mouth like a tidal wave and his body refused movement when he thought of draining her.

A fire flared in his chest, something close to delight at the appearance of a mystery, but he had called the court.

The trial began and his pondering no longer mattered.

* * *

The Volturi Kings loomed from their thrones when she followed Demetri and Felix beyond the doors.

Vampire guards hid in the shadows of the throne room, their blood-bright eyes glowing from their places like cat's stare in the dark. Her bangs hung over her ducked eyes and she refused to look up except to spare a glance to observe her surroundings. The King on the centre throne stood with his immaculate posture. His black suit with crimson accents, bespoke she assumed, paled in comparison to the elegance and grace he walked with and his wavy black hair fell around his face and framed his unnaturally symmetrical face. The tall nose, strong jawline, high cheekbones, bow lips, and fox-like eyes formed an absurdly beautiful man. She didn't bother meeting his gaze; the entire Volturi coven consumed the blood of humans and bore the crimson eyes with pride.

"Demetri, Felix, welcome home. I see you returned with our guest as requested," he said.

The other two Kings stayed in their seats. On the left was a wintry wraith with jaw-length, snow-blond hair. He was wiry but muscled, with an air of fury hovering around him, and his red cashmere scarf and black clothes contrasted his strong, pale, chiselled features. His gritted teeth did nothing to soften his knife-sharp cheekbones and snake eyes. The man on the right, however, differed from the other Kings. He was a grief-stricken painting with his long, wavy brown hair and he fell in between the two other King's beauty with his strong yet delicate features with his well-defined jawline, smooth skin, and sad, deep-set eyes. If grief hadn't dulled him, she suspected he would've glowed with a brilliance unmatched in the others.

"Dear ones, this is who we must thank for aiding our coven in the extermination of the nomad. Welcome her to Volterra and our court." The first King spoke again and his honeyed voice raised the hairs on the back of her neck. "May we know the name of one who performed a great favour to our coven, cara mia?"

"Arlen Lau," she answered quietly.

Every eye in the room bore into her like holes and the King who spoke stood right in front of her. She stared at his crimson tie, unwilling to meet his gaze.

"I am Aro and these are my brothers, Marcus and Caius. We lead the Volturi," Aro said pleasantly. "We have many questions for you. Are you willing to answer them, cara mia? Perhaps we will find the answers in which we seek with you."

"Of course," she said.

"Demetri," he called his guard forward and held out his hand for the tracker to take. It took a second before he spoke again. "I see. How interesting."

"Brother, must we drag this out?" Caius drawled, smirking.

"Patience, Caius. We cannot alarm our guest with such hurry, after all, she agreed quite willingly to come to Volterra."

Arlen sucked in a deep breath, her heartbeat slow and steady in her chest despite the panic crawling through her mind. It was close to four in the morning in Italy and if they stalled long enough, she didn't have to worry.

"I have a gift much like your newborn friend. It is quite difficult to explain but I will need your hand, cara mia," Aro said and held out his hand, slim fingers flexing. "May you do me the honor?"

She grasped his hand, eyes shifted to the ground where he wore Italian leather oxfords.

"Nothing," he said after a moment.

She wasn't an idiot, really, but she hoped he assumed her head emptied of thought out of fear or genuine stupidity. She didn't know if he had met others like her before but she wasn't willing to chance it. Arlen hoped he thought she was just a stupid girl.

"I wonder... Jane. Let us test to see if her abilities hold true. Felix, let us see if dearest Arlen also holds a gift like our coven members."

Well, all her hopes dashed with a few words.

The giant appeared behind her without warning, one hand at the top of her spine and the other beneath her chin. He turned her, his hand big enough to hold her entire head if he chose. Felix forced her head up to meet a young blonde girl's stare. Jane, Arlen guessed. The girl's lips twitched; a living, vicious thing churned her focused, crimson glare and Arlen stared back, unflinching despite the unnerving fixation and the raised hairs on the back of her neck. Nothing. Jane returned to herself and a furious glint entered her eyes, jaw clenched.

Aro clapped. "Fascinating. A wonderful demonstration, quite an interesting revelation."

The hand forcing her head up dropped and her stare fell back to the stone ground. Fissures cracked quote a few of the stones in their throne room, signs of decay as some crumbled into themselves while others left gapes in the otherwise perfected design.

"Enough, brother," Caius said from his throne. "The guard finds themselves...famished."

That wasn't threatening at all.

"As you wish, brother. How do you know of our world, cara mia?" Aro asked. "Enough to kill one of our kind. Answer us and we will allow you to live with the knowledge. Perhaps even turn you."

She remained silent, a mulish set to her jaw. Felix's hand tightened over her shoulder at her defiance.

"Well?" Aro loomed over her and his shadow pooled behind him.

The answers lingered beneath her tongue but she refused to reveal them, her teeth pressed tight together as if locked. The other kings contributed nothing to the conversation but the air weighed down, thick with tangible tension. Anticipation thickened the air, bloodlust left a bitter undercurrent in her mouth.

"Felix," Aro said.

The guard grasped Arlen's wrist and her bones cracked. She gasped but bit her lip to contain the sound.

"Answer the question, cara mia. We do not wish to harm you any further. You have potential to be a magnificent creature in immortality."

Did he have to use pet names and talk like that?

"Felix," Caius called out. "She's a liability if she does not speak."

Her wrist snapped, fractured underneath the giant's unflinching pressure, and she gritted her teeth. A whimper passed through her lips. Arlen's gaze dragged from stained copper grate over the drain, the hint of blood in the grout, and met Aro's milk-glossed crimson stare and she shifted to the other Kings on their thrones. _He _had similar eyes and she suspected the white-glaze appeared with age. Every vampire reborn under a thousand years never had such a white-haze over their eyes. She remained as still as possible; she had nothing to tell them, no matter how much physical torture they put her through.

The two other Kings, Caius and Marcus, startled as if she had electrocuted them.

Aro froze, his brow furrowed.

"Release her," he said to Felix. "Now."

Arlen paused and blinked, her brows pinched. What was wrong with them?

"Guards, dismissed," Caius ordered. "Leave. Do not return unless we call for you. There has been a new development."

Felix let go of her broken wrist and stepped back, his features furrowed. Arlen clutched her wrist to her chest and distanced herself from every vampire in the room to escape the possibility of their unforgiving grasps. They'd reach her in seconds if they wanted but she didn't want any of them crushing anymore of her bones under their icy hands and the distance comforted her even if did nothing. Sometimes she wished she wasn't human if only for the inconveniences when surrounded by supernatural beings.

"Leave us and our guest," Marcus said, voice raspy but softer than the breeze. "We have much to discuss."

A boy vampire from Jane's side protested with a soft, "Master."

"Now," Caius barked. "Do not question us."

The guards cleared the room in seconds, despite the obvious bemusement.

Arlen took another step back, away from the Kings, with great caution and bewilderment. What in the fuck was going on?

"Cara mia." Aro took a step towards her but stopped when she matched him with one step back. "Please, we apologize for our behaviour. If we had known, we would not have displayed such barbaric manners and harmed you."

Arlen's inhaled sharply when the other two Kings stepped away from their thrones. "I'm not your dear."

Something was wrong, very wrong, and apparently, she was the only one left in the room out of the loop even though it clearly involved her in some way.

"Ah, so you do speak louder than a whisper," Aro said, delighted. "We had yet to hear your voice properly and firsthand, cara mia."

What kind of fucking game were they playing? What interrogation angle was this? What was wrong with them? They killed vampires for less and she was a human—their food source. A gifted human when Aro was a collector but still a disposable human in their eyes. Gifts didn't appear singularly in vampires. Arlen bit her tongue between her teeth; she didn't know what they were doing and even if she didn't plan for this, it didn't interfere with anything but she still had to stall for time.

"Brother." Marcus held out his hand towards Aro.

Caius's intense gaze followed her every movement, even the slightest twitch of her fingers and she knew considering she had purposely moved her pinky to test her theory. Aro took Marcus' hand before his red lips curled into a pleased smirk like a cat with it's prey in it's jaws. Marcus kept an eye on her, placid but intent-filled, and the dullness to him slowly chipped away.

"Don't come any closer," she said.

"You do not have to fear us," Marcus replied gently.

"Come, amore mio," Caius coaxed, unconvincingly in Arlen's opinion. He held out his hand, a safe distance away. "We will tell you everything you must know."

She'd sooner jump in a den of lions; at least she had a chance of charming them and understanding them.

Everything that was happening? She had no idea what was going on and there was no base information to cling to for purchase.

"Not your love," she snapped. Her sharp tone seemed to wound them but she heard they weren't exactly the sanest of vampires. "And I don't need to know anything. I don't know if you could tell, but I have no information to give you and therefore, nothing to say. If you're going to kill me, you might as well do it now."

"We can never kill you," Marcus interjected.

She let out a breath of disbelief and held her wrist closer to her chest. "That's funny. Did I daydream what happened five minutes ago?"

Caius winced.

"Cara mia, it was merely a mistake," Aro said, "come with us to our private quarters and we will explain what has happened. We truly did not know who you were."

Her eyes flickered to the watch on her good wrist.

Where was he? She wasn't dealing with this new form of interrogation anymore.

"It is best to calm yourself, fiore," Marcus said. "We did not intend to alarm or injure you. Listen to my brothers, this is a conversation you would prefer in a comfortable setting."

"I'd be more comfortable if I wasn't here at all."

"There is no where for you to run," Caius growled.

Arlen flinched and swallowed. She glanced at her watch.

One more minute.

"Brother," Aro reprimanded. "Come, cara mia, he did not mean to speak so harshly. Please, be reasonable, and listen to what we have to say. It is good news we wish to share with you."

Were they living in the same world? They broke her wrist and were ready to break every bone in her body until seven minutes ago and any other day, she would've demanded answers but she no longer cared. The Volturi held nothing she wanted and the promised good news meant nothing to her. It was seven in the evening in Vancouver time and she was more than ready to disappear off the face of the earth for several months; her stall for time worked even if she had done none of the work she planned to.

"No, thank you," she said.

Wind disturbed the pile of her hair.

An arm curled around her waist and she disappeared from the throne room, not even a trace of her scent left behind.

* * *

My laptop...she's really struggling with me but you know what she'll have to power through the school year because I can't replace her. She can die when it's Christmas but not now.


	8. viii

His heart disappeared in a flurry of night-dark curls and Aro's slim fingers clutched thin air.

Arlen's place and the ghost of her waned into a scentless memory. His lips curled back into a desperate snarl as he tried to summon her again with his mind. He attempted to reconfigure her presence in his head with each feature detailed when he had first caught her keen sandstorm eyes and the unease in them when she watched them. Aro remained in the place she once stood and savored the scant recollection he managed in his head.

"No!" Caius roared and beat the ground, upending stone. "_No!_"

"Brother, calm yourself," Aro ordered. The edges of his own control frayed at the thought of their mate in the world without them or their protection. "We cannot search for her if we rampage and destroy the castle."

Caius growled but reined himself in, fury bubbling beneath his skin like Mount Vesuvius readied to destroy Pompeii and smother the Italian Peninsula with smoke. His own anger rended a deep wound in his chest; the truest happiness to exist for him and his brothers was gone with a simple step back into the teleporting newborn's arms. In a moment, everything he lived for disappeared before his eyes. The thousands years of monotony meant nothing without their mate.

"The newborn took her," Marcus said, his blood-red gaze aflame for the first time in centuries.

He stood taller, the polish of his days as Saint Marcus reappearing with each passing moment.

"I gathered that, brother," Aro said. "I presume she had planned it so for she did not seem surprised by his appearance. The gods gifted us with an intelligent mate."

Pride and pain warred in his chest at the thought. In mere minutes, they drove their mate away from them, enough that she refused to listen to their words. They had made the mistake of acting too hastily and now, their punishment in the most torturous form possible. He paced, hands held behind his back. How far could the newborn teleport? Where would they go? Surely, not back to her home, but there was one vampire who would know.

"The mating bond has already taken damage from our actions and separation," Marcus informed them, his voice strained.

"She is our future and she has absconded without the knowledge of it," Caius snarled. "We are _fools! _We harmed our mate and now she is gone."

"Demetri, Felix!" Aro summoned, unable to summon his typical cheerfulness.

His two guards appeared at the doors and opened them without hesitations although they stood with a wary air before them.

"Find the newborn," Aro ordered, eyes bright with fervor. "Bring our Queen back to Volterra. Do not harm her."

"Of course, Master." Demetri bowed his head.

Aro clasped his hands together as if he held all his hopes in his palms.

* * *

The walls of Volterra barely contained his rage with its cracked, diminishing stone.

Caius lingered in the deepest library with his brothers. He gripped the edges of the marble table and nearly crushed the edges. Some days he imagined her in the corner of his eyes and daydreamed his fingers twined in the dark of her hair, his shale digits pressed into the soft of her moon-pale skin as he traced words and figures into her skin. He often wondered after her habits, what she enjoyed in her free time, what made her happy, and everything under the sun. He had drawn her hundreds of times but never had one satisfied him; he never caught the brightness of her sandalwood eyes, the thousands of shades of black and blues in her hair, or the tender vein that ran through her body.

Four months of agony passed by.

His vampiric memory did not hold the image of her well enough to please him. Each second she spent away from their presence writhed within him, his patience chiselled to the marrow as he longed to gaze at her for hours upon end and catch the light in her hair. He leaned back into his chair, hair brushing his face.

Someone knocked on the door and he shot up, red eyes boring into the wood.

"Enter," Aro said as he tensely flipped a page.

Demetri entered with a moment of hesitation. He bowed, his black and red cloak in one arm.

"I am sorry to I report that I have lost their trail once again, Masters."

"Where were they last?" Caius snarled.

"I believe London, England, Master Caius."

"Now?" Aro's feigned calm fooled no one as he had set the book down

"I believe they're in Eastern Asia but my ability to track them wears with time. I believe it is the Queen's gift that can render her scentless."

"They disappear before we can reach them." Caius' jaw shifted. "What are they doing?"

Aro sighed. He had subsided into melancholy for the past four months, always asking nonsensical questions about their mate that was only answerable if she were with them in Volterra. His brother shifted into pondering and moping and abject absurdity he could no longer handle without Marcus' calm tempering their personalities into something more tolerable.

"How will she learn of our bond if we cannot find her to explain?" Aro sighed.

"We must devise a plan to incapacitate the newborn but we do not know his weakness."

"Her wariness, brothers, existed long before we met in the throne room," Marcus mused, "I believe her knowledge of our kind enlightened her of our power within our world along with our ruthlessness. She expected us to harm her."

"Do not remind me," Caius snapped, morose. "I ordered Felix to injure our mate greatly."

Their mate resembled a delicate flower, a rose that wilted at a simple graze of wind, and he feared for her constitution after their treatment. Her sharp tongue did nothing to belie her daintiness, a figure of lace and silk that slipped from their fingertips.

"Perhaps," Marcus said, "we must do nothing."

"Do nothing?" Caius snapped. "She is our mate! Do you hear yourself Marcus? We will fall into catatonia if she comes to fatal harm."

"Yes," Marcus replied, severe. "It seems our actions have instilled fear into our mate and she has chosen flight and avoidance the longer we pursue her. Perhaps she will return to her creature comforts and home should we rein in our attempts to pursue her trail."

He scowled, teeth grinding in his mouth. "Fine but if it does not work, then we will return to searching."

"Demetri," Aro said to the tracker who had remained. "Do not track them any longer. We have another mission for you."

"Of course, I am at your service, Masters."

* * *

The night lights of Tokyo lit the skies.

Vince towered over her in his winter jacket, black slacks, and the loose, navy blue silk button-up she forced him to wear, and he kept the first few buttons open to reveal the silver chain draped over his collarbone. Arlen's long-sleeved, silk flower blouse and trench coat hid her cast and her leggings hugged her body, skin tight, as she drifted through the winter streets and he followed closely behind her. He pretended like he wasn't hovering and she pretended he wasn't overprotective; an excellent trade-off if one asked Arlen. She flounced with her phone in hand as she flicked through her social media with her bad hand.

She updated her Instagram with a profile selfie with Tokyo as a partial background, her eyes closed, before she closed the app.

"Arlen, you're going to make your wrist worse."

"This isn't the first time I've broken a wrist," she said.

She flickered through her phone as they strolled through the city and took in the fresh scents of the clean residential streets leading deeper into the real city where humans scurried in flocks on the sidewalks and in the shops. Except, something caught her eye on her phone.

"Let's go to South Korea and play in the Starcraft tournament tomorrow!" Arlen said, excited as she waved her phone at him. "The prize is half-a-million dollars!"

Vince sighed. "Arlen, you idiot, you have a cast on. How are you going to even play?"

"I can still play," she said, "worse than normal but I'll still beat most people."

"What will you do if they find you through social media?"

"They're probably older than parchment and don't know what social media is. Do you think they're promoting the existence of vampires on Instagram?"

He rolled his eyes.

She held a cup of pearl milk tea in her good hand and sipped at it before she tucked her phone back into her pocket. "It's too bad you can't consume human food." She pouted as she held out her bubble tea. "I can't try more flavors."

"Fuck you."

"Oh, shut up, I saw how smug you looked when you took all the high scores in that arcade." She made a finger gun at him. "All the arcade games have VLD as the top score by miles. Competitive much?"

"It's the one good thing that came out of being an overgrown mosquito." He smirked and rubbed the back of his neck. "So, what are we going to do now?"

"I want sushi."

"Then the Starcraft tournament?" he asked wryly. "Well, you'll have to do all the speaking in South Korea, Miss I'm-Fluent-in-Six-Languages."

Arlen smiled. The city lights glittered like stars in her eyes and she twirled into his arms, giggling when he caught her with an exasperated sigh. "We'll have fun and you know what, this is good for us. A great vacation we didn't plan. We'll learn spontaneity, baby!"

"Hilarious how we're having more fun when we're fugitives than in our normal lives," he said. "What's after South Korea?"

"No idea, it's your choice after that."

"How do you feel about mountain climbing in Sichuan?"

She tapped her chin. "How long should we stay there? We have to go home to Hong Kong soon, too. We haven't been there since we were fifteen."

"A week or two here and there. Now, give me your phone so you can get good photos for Instagram." He held out his hand. "Your sponsorships will skyrocket with Tokyo as a background and they'll pay for our trip."

She handed her phone over and laughed when he accidentally caught her with the flash. "Retake that! Is my whole face in it?"

"I know better than that." He rolled his eyes. "Now, shut up. We'll get sushi after this."

They would return home soon but while it wasn't possible, she would enjoy her time with the world and her best friend.

* * *

Don't you love the contrast? Arlen's on the vacation of her life with a cast on (running away from detection but otherwise, perfectly fine and living her life) and they're suffering because that's what they deserve. Please read and review!


	9. ix

Deep in the Chinese province of Sichuan, the earth opened it's mouth in the form of mountains.

Trees rooted deep into the rich soil while leaves littered the ground beneath the soft, freshly fallen snow. Two silhouettes prowled under the canopy, their steps soundless until the sunlight pierced through and one appeared as though the sun hit crushed diamonds when hit with light. Arlen wore a full archery hanfu in pristine white and crimson red, and the light fabric clung to her tensed form. Red ribbons bound her sleeves to her wrists as she held a white-stained wooden bow in her hands and a black leather quiver slung over her back. Vince wasn't quite as dramatic with his all black outfit of trousers and a skin-tight shirt. He followed Arlen's footsteps to the tee and observed her with a prudent eye.

Arlen ducked her head beneath a branch and peered into a clearing and spotted the black hair of a boar nestled among the fallen leaves, twigs, and snow. She drew an arrow from her quiver and crouched low, one leg extended.

"Who's the strange man you made me drop Udon off with?" Vince whispered.

"Don't worry about it!" she said.

"How did you get us a house to stay inside the mountains?"

"Money."

Vince sighed but Arlen didn't know why he still tried. He had followed her with the same questions once a week trying to pick her brain and unravel her secrets since they disappeared from the Volterra throne room and she still hadn't given him any straight answers. One would think he'd learn how sealed her lips were.

"I hate the fact you never tell anyone anything. Aren't you tired of people never knowing about you?"

"How can I get tired? It's so fun. Anyway, figure it out or take a guess and I'll tell you if you're right." She notched her arrow and drew it back. The arrow flew, cutting wind, and when the black boar turned it's head, the arrowhead struck it's eye. "Pig's eye. Vince, your dinner."

"You want me to drain it?" he asked flatly.

Arlen shrugged. "It's already dead and has to be drained anyway so I can butcher it. So, we can both eat."

"And you know how to do so much shit too," he muttered as he picked up the boar with ease and sunk his teeth into the jugular. He drank with a delicacy unfit in comparison to the fierceness of his eyes.

"But I'm never a master of anything because I get too distracted like a dumb little fly being toyed with by god." She slung her bow across her back. "Also, everything I know is useless in modern day society. Is there ever a situation where shoot a bow and arrow in the city? No."

He pulled away from the boar and wiped his mouth with a tissue she handed him. "Now that I think about it, you're completely right. Besides martial arts and fixing houses, is there anything you can do that isn't useless in the city?"

"I have no useful talents!" she said brightly.

"How did you manage to ever survive on your own?"

She smiled at him, the edge of her teeth peeked over her bottom lip. "One day, you'll find out. Now, teleport us back!"

* * *

Marcus lingered deep in Didyme's snow coated gardens and wandered into the greenhouse.

He tended to each of the flowers in the tropical section; hibiscus, orchids, calla lillies, and passionflowers. He pinched the orchid's stem and cupped the bulb. The sunlight pierced through the glass and hollowed the petals, every vein within the thin corolla unfurled before his eyes. What flowers did their Arlen prefer? Did she even like flowers at all? Would she want her own gardens or greenhouse? Everyday, he lived with the questions plaguing his mind.

A knock drew him out of his thoughts and he turned his crimson-red eyes to the guard in the greenhouse entrance. Felix barely scraped through the door unscathed but managed to hold himself with his vampiric grace.

"Master Marcus." Felix bowed. "Master Aro wishes for your presence in the library."

"There is no need to escort me," Marcus said, "I will return."

Felix bowed again and disappeared from sight.

Marcus sighed and let go of the orchid. He ghosted his way through the gardens and back into the castle through the stone corridors, their tomb-like grey further quieted his already melancholy thoughts. The library doors opened beneath his hand and he joined his brothers coiled around the fireplace, taut as rope. Aro nodded while Caius burrowed further into his book.

"Why have you summoned me?"

"Heidi requested our presence for a critical matter that has come to her attention."

"And where is Heidi now?"

"I apologize for the wait, Masters." The familiar lilting voice sang as the library doors opened once more. Heidi strode in, her long legs peeking through her silken dress. "I had to retrieve some information before I arrived."

"Heidi, what news do you bring us today?" Aro smiled, strained.

"Masters." Heidi bowed her head and held out a metal rectangle. "I found something about the Queen while I searched for tourists."

"Why would a modern, human contraption aid us in our search for our Queen?" Caius snarled.

"She's rather popular." Heidi smiled secretly, her mahogany curls bound in a loose, elegant bun. The metal rectangle, a phone if he remembered correctly from Aro's rambles about the delights of human inventions, lit up under her fingers before she handed it to Aro. "Over thirty-five million followers on a social media platform."

Aro revealed the screen to them and Marcus' eyes refused to shift from the glowing screen, his mouth dried of venom. His fingers reached out and caressed the cold metal of the cellular device.

"Wonderful," Aro breathed. He cradled the phone as if it were a precious gem of his antique collection hidden deep within the secret crypts of Volterra. "Heidi, have these photographs pulled and made real."

"Of course, Masters, you may keep the phone," she said with a gentle smile. "We will find our Queen."

She turned away and disappeared once more, leaving them to their yearning.

Aro placed the phone on the table and Marcus flicked through the page. Several photos of her lined them; most featured the profile of her pointed nose, hooded eyes with smoky lashes, and pouted lips. She never allowed the capture of her full face as some focused on the background with her as an afterthought, and some never touched her face as she walked ahead, overshadowed by cities or landscapes.

He drew in every portrait of her like heady ambrosia.

The latest one showed her standing over snowy mountains with a bow and arrow in hand, primed and aimed over the muted landscape of winter extending for miles. Her traditional Chinese clothing fitted her snugly at the waist, tied with a crimson belt, stark against the white of her clothes and the black quiver slung over shoulder hugged her back. Marcus' eyes persisted and peeled back the layers of the photo, taking in every detail. Perhaps he needed to further delve into history and arts outside of Europe if their mate immersed herself in such culture and history.

"Where is she?" Caius growled.

Marcus shook his head. "I have said, brother, we must stop our pursuit of her trail."

Aro clapped his hands together. "Perhaps, brothers, it is time we meld with the modern world to further understand our mate. We will learn of the modern contraptions." He paused. "I suppose I shall amend my statements. You, my brothers, need education in the ways of the modern world."

"Why do you suggest that?" Caius tapped the table, irritated.

"Aro is correct," Marcus said, "I believe we will find ourselves thankful once we find her. We have much to learn."

"And I." Aro stood and gestured towards himself benevolently. "Will aid you in such an endeavour."

Marcus turned back towards the phone, his gaze beyond the pictures. How he longed to see her and speak to her.

* * *

A stream carved through the mountains into a heated pond beside their temporary home.

The pines and birches surrounded the stone fixtures, all lightly dusted with snow, while winter vegetables languished in the fields connected to the housing. A fire hid beneath a stone hut and smoke curled outwards while a metal box sat amongst the flames. Vince stood at the side of the pond, on the dusted concrete ground, and watched over Arlen imperiously. She clutched a corked glass jug to her chest as she hopped over the slicked rocks set into the ponds and propped the jug against a rock, submerged in the warm waters before she danced over the rocks once more. She leapt back onto land where Vince waited and she grinned as he caught her mid-air and set her on the ground.

"You could've split your skull," he reproached.

"But I didn't."

"Where the fuck did you even learn any of this?"

Arlen hopped over the stone ledge towards the fire. "I'll tell you a secret."

"Fucking finally."

"It's how I learned about vampires."

"What?" he asked blankly.

She smiled. "I didn't say I'd explain it."

"I hate you and your non-answers."

Arlen laughed, head thrown back and picked the box out of the fire with tongs and set it on the ground. She cracked it open from the seam to reveal tender pork marinated in a red chili sauce with napa cabbage. She scooped it out into a bowl she had set aside with cooled rice and sat on the ground across from Vince. He smiled slightly and stretched out his leg.

"I'll interrogate you when you're done eating."

"Think we should head to Hong Kong in a week?" she wondered aloud.

The Volturi would never reach them in time if they stayed deep in the Chinese mountains when Vince could teleport them across the world with ease or simply into a populated area where they couldn't reveal themselves. She didn't know what they would do when they returned to their normal lives in Vancouver but she had time to plan and she had to create contingency plans for when she wouldn't have Vince around.

"Hong Kong next week it is."

* * *

It's 2017 in this story and Bella never happened but the Cullens will appear. We'll meet them sometime in the future and yes, they're apart of the plot but I don't know if I'll ever post up to then. I can't promise considering school is coming up and I've written over one hundred thousand words of this fanfic but I don't think I'll publish it all. I don't know. I'm known to delete works whenever I feel like it if I know I won't ever update and this is a dying fandom.


	10. x

Arlen stood on the steps leading to her front door.

The key slipped into it and the first set of locks clicked before she placed her thumb behind the handle. Another set of locks clicked and she pushed open her doors and entered her house for the first time in five months. She dragged her hand over the entryway table and when her fingertips came back dust-covered, she rubbed it off before taking off her shoes.

"Ah, home sweet home." She rolled her shoulders and squawked when Vince bumped her out of his way.

"I can't believe you convinced me to go to the sketchiest event in my life as the last thing we did while on vacation," he grumbled as he set down her bags by the living room entrance. "They were all shady as shit."

"We were technically fugitives," she pointed out. "We did fugitive things. It's a learning experience, baby, and you had fun. Admit it."

"Rich people are fucking crazy," he said, "of course they're fun."

She shrugged and scrutinuzed the entryway. Arlen picked up a felt strip from the door before she slipped it back in the door hinge where it fell from. She slid into the living room where Vince had already turned on the television and curled her toes into her rug, stretching all her limbs out.

"You're so paranoid." He loosened his tie and flopped onto her sectional, completely laid out. "God, I wish I could sleep."

"Not paranoid if there are people really out to get you." She dropped in beside him and cuddled into his marble-hard body. "Also, a maid is cleaning your house right now but you probably need to organize your stuff or move it around. She'll come by to mine tomorrow while I pick up Udon."

"Is she safe?" He looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Would I let her even step within ten feet of my gate if she wasn't?" She quirked a brow and laid her head on his extended arm. "Now, shhh. I'm going to take a nap."

"You talk in your sleep, I hope you know."

She rolled her eyes and unpocketed her phone to send a quick text to their group chat before tossing her phone away. She hadn't been home in a while and she needed a little downtime not filled with constant moving and interacting with others. Arlen shut her eyes and breathed in the scent of home.

_We're back in black, baby._

* * *

Arlen parked her Lexus on the flat, empty driveway leading to Lila's home.

It was a modern work of art. No one would know better than her.

The smaller size of the three bedroom, three bathroom two-storey house contributed to the ease of architectural design of dark modern house of straight, clean lines. Arlen and Vince stepped onto the low concrete porch decorated with flowers hanging off the rails and dug out her key to open the smooth, walnut wood door to a bright and airy entryway, lit from the skylight overhead. A hand-painted mural of a blossom tree meadow enveloped the entryway walls and she ran her fingers over the varnished oil paint. It remained the same after all these years after she finished. Lila's house was her favourite project from basement to the second floor as each room flowed into each other with a softness.

She took off her shoes and padded into the white, pink, and rose gold living room where everyone else lounged on the gigantic cloud-white sectional surrounding a blush-pale rug. Hyojung lounged beside Lila in the corner. Her champagne-brown hair freshly blow-dried into her typical style of straight with a curl at the end and her black, coated lashes framed dark umber brown eyes. Lila's newly dyed pink hair fell over the edge of the sofa and Arlen tugged on it lightly as she walked by. Tao stretched out his legs over the edge with his wildly silver-streaked black hair falling into his pale brown eyes and he opened his arms in greeting.

"Arlen, you're back!" he said.

"That's what I sent into the group chat," she said idly and tugged Vince down to sit with her.

"Vinny!" Hyojung said. "Glad to see you're alive."

"Yeah, man, you quit your job without warning," Tao commented.

Vince shrugged. "A demanding little gremlin wanted to go straight to London then wherever she wanted to go."

"So, Arlen, you took Vince and went on a spontaneous five month vacation without an explanation," Lila deadpanned, "want to explain now?"

"And what about it to explain? I had fun." Arlen tapped her chin thoughtfully. "We might do it again."

"Take me with you next time!" Tao demanded.

Arlen blinked at him. "We climbed the Chinese mountains, stayed for two weeks, butchered our own meat after hunting, and picked our own vegetables."

"Oh." He wrinkled his nose. "Never mind me, then. I'd probably end up at the bottom of the mountain from falling."

"Is everyone forgetting the fact those two actually enjoy physical activity?" Hyojung said, hair tossed over her shoulder. "They _run_."

"Oh, shut up." Arlen pushed her lightly. "You go to the gym."

"I don't run."

Arlen laughed.

Someone banged on the front door. "Open up, I have the goods!"

"Dramatic." Vince rolled his eyes, the contact lenses covering the deviation with ease, and stood up to answer the door. "What do you have there?"

Isaac peacocked in, clear bags hanging from his wrists. "Bubble tea! For my love, Arlen, beautiful as ever. Thank you for reminding that you're the most beautiful person I've ever met." His fingers slipped over her cheek. "I've missed your face. Oh, the lovebirds behind me have the snacks."

She accepted the strawberry pearl milk tea he handed her and let him crowd her on the sectional. "How were they?"

"Ah, no one is ever as beautiful as you."

"But they blew your back out."

"Yes, they did," he answered shamelessly. "But they weren't for me."

"Pity."

"We brought the snacks!" Min dropped a reusable bag filled to the brim with candy on the table.

Elsie placed trays of pastries, onigiri, and gỏi cuốn on the coffee table. "You better not have interrogated them without us."

"Not at all. They came five minutes before you," Hyojung answered as she leaned over to pick up her pearl milk tea. "Can't interrogate them when it takes thirty minutes to even get Arlen to reply without a riddle."

Arlen smiled indulgently. "How about we tell you the basics and we can have a bonfire on the beach in three days when I'm no longer tired and we'll tell you all the nitty-gritty then? We just came back and I'm tired."

"It was interesting," Vince promised. "I'll fill in where she won't. I'm pretty sure she took me to meet the Triads and I didn't know it."

"Th Triads?" Elsie sat up.

Min held her down. "I doubt it."

"She has some sketchy friends," Hyojung chimed in.

Tao decided everyone needed his two cents then. "And she goes to Chinatown a lot."

Arlen sighed and Isaac patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. I think you're pretty enough to let anything go."

Lila gave Arlen's exhausted state a critical once over before she nodded. "No interrogations in my home, losers!"

Tao groaned but Isaac threw an arm over Arlen's shoulders and easily began loudly declaring his love for her before begging for her help with his microbiology-immunology class with Hyojung providing avid commentary of his trials and tribulations since they shared a class. She laughed, ribs hurting, when Lila accidentally hit Elsie in the face with her hair and almost poked her own eye with a straw only to find her pink waves locked into Elsie's hair. Vince sighed and tried to help Min untangle the two girls.

* * *

Arlen leaned against the hood of her SUV, hands in her pockets.

The overcast sky covered the sun as Vince stood on his thin lawn, hip against his Jeep, almost pure-gold eyes on her. The dilution of his newborn blood was finally settling his eye color into something she recognized more comfortably.

"We didn't talk about what you're going to do," he said.

"What I'm going to do?" she asked, bemused.

"They know where you live," Vince said. "You going to do something about that?"

"I bought an apartment in the city," she said, "I'll alternate between the two but they'll forget about me soon. My gift, remember?"

"Arlen, you said one was a tracker who could find _anyone _in the world by the flavor of their thoughts. Whatever the fuck that creepy shit means."

"Anyone but me," she corrected. "I'm not as flashy as you but I have some uses. I'm telling you, they'll forget me soon enough."

"Fine," he said, "but make me your number one speed dial. When you call, I'll appear and get you out if you need it."

"I know." she said gently. "Go inside. I'm sure your house needs rearranging with all the bullshit we bought."

"Like I won't finish unpacking in ten minutes." He rolled his eyes.

"Those ten minutes won't happen if you don't get on it. I'll see you tomorrow, alright? You know you can _pop _in whenever you want."

"Be safe," he snorted before she slipped back inside her car.

She shot a finger gun at him through her window before she drove off and weaved through the city traffic before she merged into downtown traffic. Arlen grit her teeth through the entire thirty minutes it took her to drive down to Chinatown's and parked on an uphill incline, surrounded bright red buildings. Crowds bustled on the sidewalks but she cut through them as quickly as possible, her eyes glued to her right as she walked uphill and hustled into an indie fashion shop tucked deeper in through stairs dipped between restaurants and others shops.

The bell rung when she opened the door and strode to the centre of the clothing shop full of bright clothes. The pristine white tile floors gleamed from the wax-coat as the colour-coded store's stock stretched out around the walls and onto circle racks.

"Here to pick up your snake?" A man slid up next to her from the racks, spindly and elegant in an open changshan and straight-leg slacks. His fox-like, copper-brown eyes rested on her intensely and his black hair slicked back to reveal his other strong features. "You never visit me for anything fun anymore."

"Jiang," she said. "No greetings?"

"We're long past greetings, Ai-ling."

Her expression smoothed over at his smirk. "Arlen."

"Not when it's just you and me," he said and jerked his head. "Come on. I'll close up shop for a few minutes and we can talk in the back."

She followed him to the back after he locked his front door and looked around at the dark but well-organized office. The file-organizers and drawers stacked on top of each other were nailed to the wall while a buttery leather chair sat behind an industrial desk she remembered salvaging from a thrift store for him.

He picked up his kettle from his little corner and grabbed a mug with his other hand to pour in the boiling water. "Tea?"

"No, thank you. You know, I could always redesign this place for you at a steep discount."

"You always offer and I always say no, love." He stirred a spoon of honey into his tea. "So, you're obviously not here just to pick up your darling little pet or you'd have sent a car to me so we could have a lovely little tea party in your gigantic house before you sent me on my way with my favourite pastries after trying to convince me to remodel this place."

"You need structural reinforcement. Can't have this place collapsing from neglect," she said as she peered through his office and overstock. "But this isn't a social call. I have a favour I'm going to ask of you. I need you to send a message for me."

"And what's that?"

Arlen placed an envelope on the desk.

"Can't just mail it?"

"It's not safe and I thought you'd appreciate the trip to China since you haven't been in a while. I know you've got a cousin and aunt who can take care of this place for the two weeks you'll be gone."

"Ai-ling, what's this about? You know I can't leave the country under my real name."

"All taken care of." She slipped him a parcel. "I'm building an escape route in case I need it. All the details are in there."

He opened it and rifled through the contents before setting it down, eyes serious and levelled on her with a severe grace. "I thought you quit this life."

"I did. It's for something else. I can't explain."

"Well, I owe you too much to say no."

Arlen placed another piece of paper on the table with a curved knife with a crimson red handle on top and his eyes widened.

"Oh, now we're speaking my language." He whistled as he picked it up.

"Keep the knife with you at all times," she said, "when you see him, you'll know. Show him the knife and say that the red lanterns guided you."

"Alright. Take your snake. He's been a bit snippy but other than that? You can send him back anytime." Jiang gestured to the snake tank tucked into the corner of his office. "He's pretty easy to handle and move around."

Arlen cooed at the snake tank and Udon's head perched on the rock and followed her movement with his head as she glided over. Arlen smiled and put her hand in. His pale-lavender body slithered up her arm eagerly and twined his tail around her wrist. She brought him up to eye level and rubbed his head and smiled when his tongue flickered out.

"Let's finally head home, hm?"

* * *

His keen blood-bright eyes tracked the silhouetted movements in the highest window of the mansion

The phone pressed to his ear and he waited until he heard the call connect.

"Master Aro, the Queen has returned to her home."

* * *

At the guest review from last chapter that I didn't bother to post, you chose to read this story but please remember, this is my story. I can really do whatever I want with it and I usually keep up with previous readers who reviewed consistently and give them a link to a private document to the story. If you think I'm wasting your time, you really don't have to keep up with this story. Thank you.


	11. xi

The greenery and parks stereotypical on the outskirts of North American cities shielded their presence well enough.

Marcus crouched on a branch, back against bark. It had taken Demetri much longer than usual to locate the newborn associated with their mate which was a concerning development. Aro and Caius rested in adjacent trees with the guard surrounding them as they looked for their mate. Demetri indicated to the lone fire on the cold beach surrounded by several silhouettes .

Their mate sat closest to the fire with a bag of wood at her feet.

The firelight glazed her features with all the softness and warmth of summer and for once, with his vampiric night vision, he saw her entirely. The memory of her in their throne room remained stark but the image of her blurred, faded at the edges and worn away like ink on parchment wearied by time.

Marcus tugged on their bonds. Stark lines of grey bound into them, a barely there streak of empty void ate the three ribbons sprouting from her. Such a complex thing between them but the gold base of the ribbon never faded.

"She is rather close to the newborn," Caius said lowly, fury coating his words.

She sat on the newborn's lap, unbothered by any implications as she leaned further into his embrace.

Marcus narrowed his eyes and tugged on the ribbons once more. "Nothing worrying, Caius. He is merely a bond brother."

Caius huffed and shifted back to his sulking as they overlooked their mate immersed with her human connections. Aro was unnaturally quiet, merely a wraith in his tree without comments as he observed their mate. Marcus' fingers twitched; how he yearned to touch her, to even catch the slightest graze of fingertips against her cheek or the curl of her night-dark locks.

* * *

Sunset had passed long before they set up the bonfire on Whytecliff Beach.

Arlen struck flint against steel to a batch of dried grass they brought, a bag of wood by her feet, while everyone else set up blankets and their midnight picnic. They crowded along the fireside when it rose high enough, warding off the slight bite of cold, as they passed around their drinks and snacks, bustling around each other until they could settle down on outdoor canvas blankets and logs already set up. Vince sat on a log and Arlen lounged on his knee with her bubble tea clutched close to her chest. He wrapped an arm around her waist and used her lap as a table. Hyojung and Isaac sprawled over the logs beside them while everyone else laid on the blankets.

"How you could disappear without telling us anything while whisking Vince into the mix?" Elsie stretched out of the blanket after they all settled, her sweater riding up. "God, that was such a whirlwind."

"You act like that was worse than her rebel phase." Vince scoffed and brushed his hair away from his forehead. "At least she took someone with her this time."

"I remember that!" Hyojung gasped.

"You had a rebellious phase?" Tao whirled in his seat to face Arlen. "You never told us!"

Arlen blinked, mid-sip, and waited for a moment. "I always forget some of you were too busy with school to witness the absolute mess I was but also, I wasn't rebelling. I don't have parents to vex with blatant disobedience. Your girl lived her life after that early graduation."

"I nearly had a heart attack, idiot." Vince knocked the back of her head.

"That's on you for not seeing it coming," she shot back.

Lila snorted. "She came back from a three month trip, alone, with five tattoos and seven new piercings and an entirely new look advertising her identity as bi."

"I was out of the closet long before that."

"But you weren't advertising then." Hyojung leaned over and poked her collarbone.

"Traitor," Arlen muttered.

"You think I learned unbuttoned to almost indecency on my own? With such elegance?" Isaac sipped at his drink and tugged at his collar. "Arlen taught me by existing."

She laid a hand on her chest. "Et tu, Brute? After I heard about the way your dates ended in detail from the other parties?"

Isaac choked on his tea and she smirked, smug.

"Okay, but where were we during this?" Tao asked as he pointed at himself, Min, and Elsie. "I don't remember this. Do you?"

Min stared at Arlen thoughtfully. "No, I don't think so?"

"University applications, finals, and your graduations," Vince answered lazily.

Isaac laid back, hands behind his neck. "Vince, Lila, and I searched all over the city for her."

"Oh, right." Min snapped. "Vince was about to lay eggs over Arlen when she disappeared for five days until she sent us a group text saying that she was in Seoul."

"I can't believe you thought a text was good enough, we thought you got mixed up in your sketchy contacts again and died with the way Vince was banging on about it," Elsie added, arm over Min's shoulders.

"They're not sketchy." Arlen rolled her eyes. "They're _interesting_."

"Your definition of interesting aligns with shady," Hyojung interjected, smirking over the bottle's lip. "So, why did you disappear?"

"I was about to go insane so ya girl disappeared into the mountains and came back with her mind in the right place."

Isaac tipped up his bottle in a cheers motion "She's got everything in the bag."

Tao skittered to her side eagerly. "Who cares, where are your tattoos?"

Arlen rolled her eyes and pulled the entirety of her hair up into a high tail. She pushed back her baby hairs and turned her head. "Two around the ears, one below the left ear, and two between my fingers." Her hair fell back around her in waves, caught by the breeze.

"And you have so many ear piercings," Elsie noted.

She shrugged. "It's fun."

"Me too." Lila volunteered and tucked her hair behind her ears to reveal her multiple piercings. "I got the rest of them with her."

"Who cares about that?" Min exclaimed. "What about the Triads Vinny mentioned?"

"They weren't Triads." Arlen lifted up her drink. "We just went to an event with a lot of with lots of rich people and government officials."

"The Triads have infiltrated government positions before," Vince pointed out. "They all looked shady as fuck."

"You all watch way too many movies," Isaac commented. "Arlen's not the type to bring us into trouble she can't get us out of."

"What else did you do?" Hyojung threw her legs over their log. "Besides commit crime and be chaotic?"

"She won a Starcraft tournament." Vince took her drink away. "Tell them more. You could win an Oscar with the amount of melodrama you inject into everything."

She snatched his drink up. "Well, I broke my wrist beforehand but I received an ad on Instagram, reading my thoughts, while we were in Tokyo about a tournament taking place in Seoul the day after next after Christmas time..."

* * *

The scent of fire clung to her clothes long after they ended their bonfire and she dropped Vince off at his townhouse.

Arlen parked the car around the curve of her driveway and hopped out of the driver's seat. Her keys jingled in her hands as she strode to the very bottom of her stairs leading to her porch and doors.

She stared at the door hinges, the third one down, and blinked warily at the missing felt strip she adjusted every time she stepped out of her house. Her hand drifted down to her phone in her pocket and walked backwards before she sprinted back down the driveway. Hands caught her shoulders gently before she reached the driver door of her car and she froze under the ice-cold grip. She turned around slowly which they allowed her to do and glared up at the familiar face.

"I apologize, my Queen, but we cannot allow you to leave." Demetri bowed his head. "The Masters wait for you inside."

"If I'm really your queen or whatever, you're trying to tell me what I can do on my own property."

"How did you know we were here, my Queen?" He smiled, charming, but she stared back, unimpressed.

"Don't call me that," she said, "and don't think you're special. I didn't know it was you, I just knew someone was in my house."

Demetri smiled pleasantly but it was strained. "Please, let us be reasonable and you may hear my Masters' reasons for following you to your home."

"Oh, so they can break my leg this time to prevent escape while they interrogate me like last time?" she asked.

"You are our Queen, they will not harm you."

"I have a cut cast and x-rays to prove otherwise."

"They will not harm you," he repeated as he guided her to the stairs leading up to her front door.

She couldn't fight a vampire so she relented. "An entire house invasion usually doesn't happen out of good intentions."

"Everything, tonight, my Queen, was done with your well-being in mind."

"I doubt that," she muttered.

She walked up the stairs to her front door with great reluctance. Demetri pushed it open with a simple flick of his wrist, security measures clearly rendered useless, and she stepped in behind him. Arlen stood in her entryway on the plain black rug and refused to take off her shoes, back against the door when it shut behind her. The Volturi Kings stood at the entrance to the living room, all dressed to the nines in suits. A few of their guard stood behind them; Jane, a young brunette boy, Demetri, and a small brunette girl. Their red eyes bright under the white light of her home. Objectively, they were all unearthly in their beauty but Arlen could only focus on their movements and the distance between them.

"Ah, cara mia, we meet again," Aro said. His bespoke suit fit his toned and lean body like a glove, spotless and unwrinkled in the slightest.

"Inevitable considering you broke into my house, waited for me here, and had your guard drag me back into my own home," she said. Her eyes narrowed when she saw they still had their shoes on while walking in her house and when Caius tried to take a step forward, she rested her hand on the doorknob. "Don't come closer or I will immediately run and trigger an alarm on purpose."

Aro raised his hands with a slight smile. "I see we frighten you, we apologize, but we are not here to harm you, cara. There is much to discuss as you left before we could begin last we met."

"So, you followed me across an ocean and broke into my home despite not being invited."

"The old myth of vampires needing invitation into one's home is false, amore mio," Caius said.

"I know." She smiled icily and decided to push her luck with their patience for this ruse. "I wasn't talking about the vampire myth. I was talking about the basic manners of knocking on someone's door and asking for their consent to enter their homes out of good manners and respect. I didn't invite you in and you didn't knock so I don't appreciate your presence here."

Caius look struck, cut quick to the bone. His clothes hid his much bulkier frame corded with muscle and banked violence, everything about him screamed predatory. Hunter, fighter, soldier, and gladiator. He embodied carnivorous except when that dejected look flickered across his face for fhr barest of seconds.

"We apologize for how we entered your home," Marcus intervened, his low voice soothing, free of the rasp he had back in Volterra. He was tall, slender, and graceful; his movements swaying like bamboo giving to wind only to snap back into place. "But there is an unsolved quandry we must address before we leave."

"I live in Canada so I'm assuming it's not my medical bill." Arlen's gaze shifted between them and their guard. "Cut to the chase, why are you here?"

Caius snapped something she couldn't hear and their guards disappeared from view in a whirlwind of black and red cloaks.

"Oh, good, they're gone," she commented, "now you can just break my bones yourself."

Caius flinched. "It was a mistake, amore."

Like that was going to stop her from holding it against them. Her wrist couldn't just unbreak itself immediately after the 'mistake'.

"Is there a reason why you're referring to me with pet names instead of my given one or did you not bother to remember it?" How far could she push her luck? Could she push them to the point of killing her? She was about to find out. "And you still haven't told me why you're inside my house instead of knocking and waiting for consent to enter like normal, mannerly people."

"Let us sit," Marcus said softly.

She smiled sharply. "I'm fine against the door."

"Then I will be blunt, you are our mate, Arlen Lau." Caius stared at her intensely. "The other half of our souls."

Aro smiled thinly at his brother and muttered something.

One girl for three kings? The math didn't add up on that one.

"I don't believe you," she said firmly. "That's some premium bull you're trying to sell and I'm not buying it."

Their brows furrowed before they pieced together the implications of her words.

"Fiore, it is pertinent you hear what we must say to you. We have search five months for even a trail of your scent."

"Sweet Arlen, we are not here to trick you."

"I don't have to listen to you," she said. The door swung open behind her. "And I don't care. Now, if you actually feel sorry for my wrist or believe what you're saying, get out or I can leave."

The Kings exchanged glances with each other. Aro clasped his hands together and whispered something lowly and they discussed things at breakneck speed, enough that her eyes didn't know where to look and her ears couldn't even catch the slightest pronunciation of their words. If they were smart, they'd even discuss things in a language dead long before she even was a concept on the Earth.

"Perhaps a discussion was not needed. We can take you back to Volterra without your agreement," Caius hissed.

"I'm sure you can," she fired back, heartbeat wild in her chest. "And I'll make sure I'm dead before we even get there."

If they forcibly took her to Volterra, she didn't know how she would escape without letting Vince know where they took her. She only had so many resources before she ran out and Jiang wasn't even back with her emergency exit plans. She had nothing in clutch and in truth, she would die before she let them get whatever they wanted from her. God, what the fuck did they even want from her? Her hands trembled against the door's handle and she swallowed harshly, eyes tracing their every movement for a hint they might follow through on the threat Caius issued.

Marcus' eyes flickered before he touched Aro's hand and whispered something beneath his breath to Caius who's red eyes shifted away from her, expression pinched. Almost regretful.

"Do not say something you will regret, brother," Aro said. "We shall listen to our dear Arlen and wait until we are invited into her home once more."

They walked by her through the door with all the grace and elegance typical of old vampires but Aro lingered and grasped her hand, brushing a kiss against the back, before he disappeared with the other Kings in the night. She closed the door behind them, breathed in sharply, and clutched her hand to her chest.

Should she call Vince? Were they really gone or were they waiting around until she let down her guard to kidnap her? Her terrible human vision could only do so much in the night and she didn't know what they wanted with her, but Aro's habit of collecting powerful vampires put Vince in danger until she figured out why they came back for her. She couldn't call Vince. The entire mates idea? A delusion or a lie they cooked up in crazy-town kitchen. She didn't know who they thought she was but the enchantment of vampires only went so far on humans after said human spent most of her time around them. The knowledge of what she did settled on her and she blinked, fingers trembling. She kicked out the Kings of the vampire world after she ripped them a new one for breaking into her house.

She dragged herself up the stairs to her bedroom and pretended as if nothing happened in the last thirty minutes as she readied herself to fall asleep.

If she woke up in their jet, she'd toss herself out of it long before they reached Volterra.

* * *

The doorbell to her gates rang like a funeral bell in her bedroom.

Arlen startled among the pale blue pillows of her bed, a small shriek in her throat. She threw off her blanket, and stalked to the answering machine in her room with a clenched jaw. Who in the fuck among her idiot friends was it? In the corner or the security panel in her room, the time flashed in blue as she stared into the real time footage recording at the gate. The three Volturi Kings stood at the gate, in entirely new clothes,

_5:03am._

She had barely slept for one hour.

"Hello," she said into the microphone. Her hands quivered and her blood boiled in her veins.

"Fiore—"

"It's five in the morning, the sun isn't even up, I'm not a flower, and I don't care. You might not need sleep but I do. If you think this is a good time to talk to me, you can fly back to Volterra because we clearly don't agree on anything."

She flicked her doorbell off and shut all communications from the gate to her room.

Arlen fell back into her bed, curled up beneath her pillows and blankets again and prayed to every god she didn't believe in that they'd just go home. Whatever the fuck they wanted, she clearly didn't have it in quick supply or she'd have tossed it out the window in exchange for peace and quiet to sleep.

* * *

I hope everyone will understand what I'm trying to achieve with this fic. I want this to be a healthy relationship between four people. I'm doing my best to keep everyone in character but if you want my perspective on the Volturi Kings, I do believe they're doting and loving towards their mate but their version of love is over-controlling in different ways, and with the obvious power-imbalance between them and Arlen, it's not healthy. Arlen is still a person with her wants. Their behaviour won't gel well with her personality and this isn't a love story where the main female lead immediately falls in love. They've been the Kings of an entire empire for thousands of years and expect total obedience, she isn't an exception to the rule, but here's the thing, she's their significant other. She won't let them order her around. That isn't how relationships work and in fact, relationships like that are abusive. All relationships have a learning curve. This one will take longer than most.

Also thank you to everyone for their reviews, especially Marth. I love the inclusion of Chinese. Thank you for that. I purposely write protagonists of color for several reasons but mainly because I can never relate to main characters who everyone believes the default should be a non-poc.


	12. xii

Light streamed into her game room through the large windows before she closed the curtains over them.

She hadn't left her house in two days in case the Volturi Kings took that as an invitation to confront her again but luckily for her, she had stayed at home much longer. Arlen loved her home; she designed it herself for that reason alone. She lounged around the house in a varitey of short-shorts and pyjama button-ups the entire two days. Some people dreamed of living such a quiet life and she was one of them.

Arlen fell back into the faux-leather of her gaming floor chair, legs crossed in lotus, with a set of gigantic headphones on her head and covering her ears. Her keyboard and mouse rested on a floor table as she stared hard at the flashing lights across the television.

She turned on her Starcraft stream. "Hello, everyone. This is Fatal coming in for the kill, we're playing as Zergs for the stream today. Something light and easy but we'll wait a little for everyone to tune in. Thank you for all the donations coming in. So, let's have a little chat before I begin winning." She talked into her microphone lightly, avoiding any uncomfortable questions before ten minutes passed and she adjusted herself. "Alright, I think we've waited long enough. Let's start, shall we?"

Two hours passed long before she even noticed the time and wrapped up the short stream.

"Your girl is still sitting pretty," she crooned jokingly. "Anyway, we'll have to cut the stream short since I still have real life things. So, see you next time! I'll make sure to let you know an hour beforehand the next time I plan to stream which will definitely be soon...there's some circumstances that make it easy for me to stream right now and no, it's not a dessert father, thank you."

The chat pinged with goodbyes and last minute donations before she shut off the stream and slipped out of her gaming room to the kitchen downstairs. She busied herself with preparing a plate of snacks with crispy seaweed, shrimp crackers, haw flakes, and dried squid while her electric kettle boiled water for her tea. When the switch clicked, she poured herself a cup of tea and leaned over her island, flicking through her phone.

The doorbell to her gates rang and her head whipped around, eyes narrowed on the security feed on the wall by the entrance to the living room. She blinked. A teenage girl by a delivery truck at her gate and grinning brightly at the camera pointed at her. Arlen dusted off her hands and sauntered to the security panel and clicked the button.

"Hello, this is the Lau Estate. State your purpose."

"Hello, my name is Dion. I've got a delivery for an Arlen Lau from _Fleurs Éternelles_!"

"Sorry, but I didn't order anything from you..." she trailed off.

"Oh, no. It's a gift from someone," Dion replied, unnaturally cheery. "You can refuse it but..."

But she might face consequences at her job and she was just a teenage girl and probably a part-timer. She stared at Dion before she sighed and pressed the button to open the gates. "Come on through. You can park in the mouth in front of the doors. I'll meet you there."

She put aside her snacks and slipped out of her home.

Dion entered Arlen's house several times with two boxes at a time in her arms, delivering all of them onto her coffee table where they stacked them.

"Oh, you have a snake!" she commented, delighted as she set another two boxes down on her coffee table and peered into the tank.

Udon ignored her and slithered onto his warming rock.

"Yeah. His name is Udon. You need any help with that?"

"No, not at all, this is my job!" Dion assured.

Arlen shifted and cleared her throat when Dion came back for the eighth time. "Do you know who sent all of this?"

"Oh no, but there's three cards that came with this order," she said, "I'll be back with them after the last batch!"

Arlen shifted some of the acrylic boxes around from her coffee table to her sofa and kitchen table as Dion made her last few trips, happily disappearing and reappearing with arms full of roses. When she was finally done, Arlen stared at the twenty-four acrylic boxes filled with blue, white, and pale lavender roses set on her coffee table, kitchen table, and blue velvet sectional as the girl smiled brightly at her. In the tender-light of gold noon, the blues of the room seemed brighter, almost haloed from behind and she sighed.

"They stay fresh for one year," Dion chirped and handed her three cards wrapped in a gold lined cream envelope.

"Uh, thank you." Arlen plucked them out of her hands with two fingers, holding them as if they were plagued with terrible omens.

"No problem! I hope you love your flowers, whoever sent them must be really special to you!"

"Special," she repeated. "Yeah, thank you. Hope you have a great day."

"Thanks!"

Dion skipped out and the truck disappeared down the driveway and out her open gates before she stepped back inside and took inventory of the roses. Arlen shook her head and sighed. She reached into Udon's tank and let him slither up her forearm to wrap around and he rested his head in the crook of her elbow.

"Udon, what are we going to do?" she groaned as she manoeuvred the snake until it rested on her chest. She stroked his head and stared at the various flowers in her house before she set him on her shoulders and took three boxes off her sofa. "Come on, they can't all be in one place."

She walked up the stairs and Udon laid his head on her collarbone, contented with her body heat, and she bumped open the door to her room. One box rested on her vanity, the next on her writing desk, and the third sat on her bedside table. Arlen zipped around the house with Udon, boxes in hand as she tried to find homes for the flowers but even then, twelve remained in the same general area. Eight in the living room and four in the kitchen and dining areas.

She took Udon off her shoulders and set him back down into his tank where he immediately found his warm enclosure and stayed there for quite sometime. Arlen stretched her arms over her head and bent backwards, grabbing her ankles, before she straightened out.

"Udon, what did I even do to deserve this?" she asked the snake. "God, it must be nice to be you...you don't have to worry about things like this at all."

She sat down on her couch and stared out the window towards her now closed gates. The envelopes sat on the coffee table, innocuous but so ominous, and she stood to grab her plate of snacks and her cup of cooled tea from the kitchen island to the coffee table. Her eyes flickered back to the envelopes ever so often before she gave into her curiosity and plucked one up. She broke the sticker holding the envelope closed and revealed the black and red card with such elegant calligraphy she couldn't help but blink in disbelief.

_Dear Fiore, it would soothe my soul should you find the roses bring you happiness. - Marcus._

How persistent. She reached back over and opened the other two, flicking between them once she was one.

_Cara mia, the blue flowers match the glint of your hair under sunlight. - Aro_

_Amore mio, these flowers are meagre offers compared to even a simple word from you. - Caius_

She tapped the cards against her thigh before she set them back down and walked towards her front door.

Arlen stood outside her door and looked around to find nothing but the sunlight pierced wood beyond her gates. She held her hands around her mouth. "The roses are wasteful."

She shut the doors behind her and scurried back into her living room.

* * *

Caius' blood-red eyes tracked her every movement through the open windows.

The silhouette of her trailed through her home, caressed by the concept of sunlight broken through the thinned clouds overhead. He and his brothers sat in the trees outside of her home, ears perked for any sound from her.

"She is difficult to please," Aro remarked. His gaze followed Arlen's form with a masked adoration unsuited to his cold features, his black hair mused from the breeze. "Ah, our mate is such a mystery. How entertaining."

Marcus smiled. An unusual sight Caius privately found himself glad for as he had forgotten what his brother looked like when joyous. "She is created perfectly for us, Aro, the gods did not wish for you to read her."

Their mate shut the curtains to her home and Caius frowned. Only two days since he had last spoken to her but the moment he had left, he yearned to remain in her presence but he doubted she wanted him anywhere near her and now he could not even lay eyes upon her to soothe the beast inside of his chest. The panic in her eyes that night had unsettled him, a pervasive gnaw in his throat and chest but he refused to apologize—he would not debase himself. He would make her understand.

"Our bonds, brother?" Aro inquired.

Marcus' lips pursed. "Still grey with resentment and distrust but there is slight curiosity with her neon yellow."

Aro's eyes slipped shut and he sighed. A growl anchored in Caius' mouth at the thought of their mate resenting them for their actions.

"We will have to appeal to her better nature," Aro said, "something we have no understanding of."

Caius' fingers ran through his hair, digging into his scalp. "What will we do?"

"A good question," Aro murmured.

* * *

The third day of her self-imposed solitary confinement in her home ended with a single phone call.

The low-light of a sunny morning beamed through her bedroom and she lounged in her bed, snuggled beneath the blankets and a slow melody playing from her bookcase speakers beside her bed. Except, a beep interrupted her mid-morning laze and Arlen rolled over to glare at her phone on her bedside table. She picked up her vibrating phone with a groan and peeked at the name across the screen. Her fingers slid across the glass.

"Sebastian, hi," she greeted, "is there a reason you're calling when you never do?"

"I know this is short notice but please tell me you're in Vancouver. I'm begging you." His voice corded over the phone and she blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, I'm home right now...you alright?"

"We had a model cancel on us," he said, "I've called people all day since six in the morning and no one can come in. Please, can you come in? It's being shot in my studio, you know the directions right? It's an evening shoot starting at four."

"Can't it be earlier?" she asked. "If we start shooting at four, it'll be near midnight before we're done. I don't think that's on a list of things I want to do."

"Please, Arlen, I'm begging you." The desperation in his voice would've been comical if it weren't for how genuinely sad he sounded. "There's no other models in the city available and we cannot do it any earlier because the previous bookers have the space until two-thirty in the afternoon."

"Did you really call everyone?"

"Arlen, they're offering seven figures for this. I really did call everyone I've ever met and you know I only call you for emergencies."

She paused. "Fine, you owe me one. Don't complain when I come calling to collect."

"Is your waist still the same size?"

"Yes?"

"Great, the model was your height and general size but we'll have to dock down the waist then," he said. "Can you bring some wildflowers too? We need them for the shoot."

"...fine. I'll see you soon, Seb. Get the contract ready."

She set down her phone with a sigh and laid in her bed, head lolled onto the pillows. Arlen sighed and slipped down to her kitchen and dug around her cabinets for a woven basket and she threw a kitchen towel into the bottom with a pair of scissors.

"The things I do for people," she grumbled and threw on a windbreaker.

The sky was a dull grey in patches with blue skies and sunlight peeking through, a halo effect behind the clouds. The soft breeze barely pierced through her leggings and the lack of true winter chill didn't call for a jacket when she stepped out her front doors. She walked out her front gates and into the woods. Wildflowers in February was as likely as her life returning to normal after Vince became a vampire. Perhaps she'd find some cornflowers and marigolds if she prayed hard enough, if not, she'd go to some florist and buy flowers before billing it straight to Sebastian.

A twig snapped behind her as she knelt down by a lone cornflower by a tree and cut it to throw into her basket. She gripped the scissors tightly and whirled around only to find herself caught by the amused smile of Marcus and his hand gripping her wrist. He let her go and she wordlessly picked up her basket again and began to look for more flowers. In truth, after Sebastian's phone call, their existence slipped her mind but it seemed they did not forget about her, at all, and she did not need this right now but they were persistent as horse flies with how they appeared around her, although not invading her space.

"It is not safe to wander these woods, cara mia," Aro said when she stopped again by a few more lighter cornflowers to cut them.

"The only danger to me I see is you and unless you're planning on finishing what you started, I'm fine." She tossed a few flowers into her basket and ignored Caius at her side. He was the most violet, the most ruthless some would even say, out of the Kings and if she had any chance of angering one of them, it would be him. She had done it before, after all. "Or, you've changed your mind about the kidnapping."

"Nothing has changed," Marcus said gently.

"Because someone planning on a kidnapping would tell their victim so blatantly."

"Are you collecting flowers?" Aro asked, delight sketched across his features.

Arlen shrugged. "It's for a job."

"And what is it that you do, amore mio?"

She paused and eyed him warily. "Why do you ask?"

"Must you be so suspicious?" he returned.

"Yes." She found some marigolds and cut their stems before tossing them into her baskets. "Now, why are you here? And don't say nothing because I wouldn't trust it."

"We were merely curious as to why you left your home," Marcus said.

"It's for my work," she said shortly.

The brothers said something beneath their breaths and she gathered more flowers, ignoring them, until one grasped her hand. She stared into the deep-set, soulful eyes of Marcus.

"We will take our leave, fiore," he said and brushed a kiss across the back of her hand.

She couldn't tell if she liked the old world manners or not but clearly, they preferred it as Aro followed suit with his own kiss across her hand. But when his brothers left, Caius remained behind. His snow-bright hair like a lighthouse in a dark night against the dark-wood trees of the woods. The faint beams of sunlight caught his diamond-dusted skin and she turned back to walk to her gates when he remained where he was.

"Wait," he said roughly.

Arlen paused and eyed him, wary as a wolf. "Yes?"

He stared at her intensely, the wine-red of his eyes churned with conflict. "May I come closer?"

She blinked and eyed the apparent distance between them. "Will you come closer anyway if I say no?"

"Not at all, amore mio."

"Fine," she said. "A little."

He walked closer, slow, as if she was a fawn who'd scare easily. His steps stopped at the edge of her comfort zone and his eyes trailed over her. She wore her leggings, windbreaker, and combat boots which were nothing compared to his clearly luxury, bespoke suit and Italian leather oxfords but she had just stepped out of her house. If he was judging her, he could take that opinion elsewhere.

"Did you take pleasure in the roses?" he asked.

She held her basket closer to herself. "They're _wasteful _and while I appreciate the gesture, I didn't need over one hundred roses sent to me."

"But you enjoyed them?" he insisted.

"Yes," she sighed.

"Then that was all we wished for. There are no needs between us."

She shifted slightly, eyes flickering. What was his angle? "If that's all?"

"May I come closer?" he asked, again, but this time his eyes weighed on her. "Enough to touch you."

Arlen shrugged and he took slow, measured steps until he was in arm's reach. Caius deftly removed the basket from her arm and set it on the ground before he grasped her shoulder. He held her right hand and his stone fingers caressed up to her wrist with a gentleness meant for children. A hesitation unsuited to his reputation as a harsh, violent ruler and she couldn't reconcile the man before her with the image instilled into her head. His fingers rested against the delicate pulse of her wrist and he looked down into her eyes, intently.

"I apologize for my rash words," he said, "I will not say I did not mean them then but I see the error in my ways. I did not take into consideration your wants nor your possible negative opinion of us nor your fears. My actions and words have greatly harmed you and I am truly...sorry for my behaviour the other night and in our court. Upon my position as a King of the Volturi and vampires, I swear to endeavour further understanding you, amore mio."

Arlen blinked and then blinked again.

The words didn't compute in her brain.

"Oh..." she trailed off..

He smiled wryly and for once, he didn't seem like someone intended on ruining his day succeeded with the blessing of every god in existence. "You are surprised."

"I know of your reputation," she said quietly. "What do you want?"

"From you? Your presence alone satiates me, amore. My reputation will have no quarter between us for the matter. Do not think of it so."

"Thank you for the apology but I really need time to think and process everything," she said quickly and gathered her things to disappear back to her house.

He let her go and she didn't look back to see his reaction. She disappeared beyond the gates, almost sprinting to her house, and when the doors slammed shut behind her, she rested her back against them. Arlen clutched the woven basket full of flowers to her chest and she stared at the blue roses on her entryway table, rolling a cornflower between her fingers as she tried to understand what exactly happened five minutes ago. Something curled in the back of her throat and she plucked her phone out of her pocket to send a text to her chauffeur.

Perhaps she needed to clear her head with work before she even contemplated her next course of action.

* * *

I'm kind of already having regrets about how fast this story went to get up to this point due to my enthusiasm to get to the beginning of the real plot. However, if we get to...the thirty-forty chapter area I'm not sure what we'll do because I planned on sexual content that definitely oversteps the bar of FFN regulations so we'll see. Also, there's two more major pairings that have to do with my original characters and canon characters...can you guess which ones preemptively?

Regular reviewers, I hope you have some way for me to contact you directly.


	13. xiii

A flower crown sat heavy in her hair as she arched her neck, hand resting on the curve between.

The studio lights danced in her eyes as the camera flashed and the photographer shot instructions at her. She adjusted her pose, bending her toes and flexing her calves to emphasise the muscles and highlighted skin peeking out beneath the flowing blue summer dress twisted around her ankles. She stood up when the photographer, Ken, gestured for her to switch poses and she turned to face the white backdrop, hands stretched out behind her and a leg lifted behind her, knee bent. The constant flashing filled her vision as she continued throughout the shoot, sending an amused glance at Sebastian in the corner who worried his bottom lip, eyes flickering left and right ever so often.

"Alright, it's time to wrap!" Ken called out. "Great shoot everyone! Fantastic for something so last minute. Alright, let's start cleaning up. We don't want Sebastian to have a conniption over the state of his studio."

"Arlen," Sebastian said as he strolled to the set, maneuvering between the lights and moving bodies cleaning up. He hugged her tight. "Thank god. I owe you one."

"You really do," she replied and patted his shoulder. "You'll be okay if I go now?"

"No worries, we just needed you as a model." He released her, hands still on her shoulders but his face was relieved of the lip biting and forehead wrinkling. "You can go now and we can catch up some time soon. It's late. Do you need a ride?"

"I'll leave the clothes in the dressing room." Arlen waved as she left to change. "And don't worry about me. This is my city after all."

She slipped into the empty room with her bag on the side and changed into an over-sized sweater, leggings, and a ball cap. Arlen ducked out of the studio and sighed at the clear skies; it was a nice night for a walk if she wasn't so tired but she had already sent her chauffeur home. There was a bus stop two blocks away and she could still enjoy her walk. She headed towards the bus stop only to pause at the sound of footsteps following her and she tensed, her entire body taut and ready to shoot forward in a sprint.

"Queen Arlen, it's unsafe to walk alone at night."

She paused and turned around, middle finger already primed to flip whoever the Volturi sent to follow her off.

Demetri, again, and he grinned at her narrow-eyed expression of displeasure at his appearance. She glanced around to look for people possibly passing by or spectating but there was no one. A good thing, really.

She rolled her eyes at his smug expression and Demetri only shrugged, gesturing to the limo pulling up. A gusty sigh escaped her; she was barely able to comprehend what happened in the woods and had no time to think about it but she suspected that was their motive. To overwhelm her until she couldn't think anymore.

"Your ride, my Queen," he said.

"Stop calling me your queen," she hissed, "a normal person doesn't randomly call another person by a royal title unironically."

"Apologies, my Queen." He smiled charmingly, an almost mocking edge to the curve of his lips. "But the masters have insisted it is your proper title and have tasked me with making sure you arrive home safely."

"You can just say get in the car or I'll annoy you by following you home very obviously," she muttered and glided by him to open the door to the limo. She peered inside to find the Volturi Kings lounging in their seats, eyes on her with an intensity she was already growing used to. "Why are you doing this?"

"Ah, cara mia. We thought you would appreciate us replacing your chauffeur," Aro said smoothly.

"You mean you stalked me and noticed I sent my chauffeur home," she deadpanned. "What do you have to gain from doing this?"

"Nothing you must worry about." Aro dismissed, words almost guileless but his red eyes gleamed in the dark, predatory.

"It's best if you come with us, fiore, it is late," Marcus broached carefully, "it is rather...unsafe for you to walk alone."

As if she hadn't walked these streets in the dark alone since she was a high school student.

She sighed when she glanced at the time on her phone. "Fine. You win this once. I'm too tired to wait for another ride. You can drive me home and only drive me home. To the gate. Those are my terms."

"And we will agree to them, amore." Caius crossed his legs, blood-red eyes settling on her too comfortably to ease her nerves.

She threw another at Demetri for good measure before she sat down on the empty backseat of the limo. Felix drove the limo and he smirked when he saw her enter. Arlen crossed her legs primly and folded her hands in her lap, keeping a close eye on the Kings to see if they invaded her personal space.

The ride home was not a silent affair which she would've preferred; the Kings posed soft questions and she answered with care. She never revealed more than she had to and danced around the topics they attempted to needle through. They asked after her job, her life, her background—and she didn't budge for a second. The more they knew about her, the more power they held over her, and she wasn't a disillusioned girl placed before Kings, left to their mercy. They wanted something from her.

And despite the words she exchanged with Caius outside of her home, she wasn't giving them any quarter until they told her point-blank what they wanted from her.

When they parked outside of her house, she exited, shut the gates and hurried into her home, not glancing back once at the Volturi Kings.

* * *

Arlen sat the desk in her personal office, tapping her pen against the white-washed wood as she stared out of the windows covered by sheer curtains.

They were watching her home, that was for certain, and while it would make anyone else paranoid, it didn't bother her as long as they kept off her property. It was clear that she had something they wanted but couldn't force out of her hands and while she suspected it was because of her gift, she wasn't quite so sure anymore after Caius' actions and words in the woods. What did he have to gain for a lowly guard member by throwing away his pride? An unheard of occurrence and unexpected. She still couldn't quite reconcile a King kneeling to someone who barely registered as a peasant on their scale. She was the equivalent to a persistent and annoying fly more than anything.

There was something more than simple information for an execution or her gift.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. Understanding vampires thousands of years old wasn't probable without causing major headaches. The pen hit her desk and she stood up, walking out of her office to her bedroom to get dressed. She could wait them out but a vampire who managed to claw their way into living for thousands of years didn't lack patience in the slightest and while she loved her home, she didn't want to waste away behind the walls or find herself chased across the planet by the Kings of the vampire world. The fact she thought she could was irrational and derived from sheer stubbornness than anything else.

Arlen sat on her bed, in freshly laundered clothes, and fiddling with her phone, dreading what she was about to do next.

What was she even trying to delay?

God, curiosity really must've killed the cat.

She walked down the stairs, each step leaden like she was headed to her own funeral and she paused when her hand met the front door. They were somewhere out there, she could tell somehow, and shouting out of a crack to the wide open air like a nut didn't sound appealing. The crisp yet cool Vancouver air filled her lungs as she stood on her concrete porch, scuffing her slippers.

"I know you're here," she said. The wind blew by, brushing her hair into her face but she batted it away. "I'm giving you one chance to explain this to me in full detail."

They appeared before her, almost as if she conjured them up from her imagination alone. She startled, nails digging into the delicate skin of her palms and heartbeat erratic. No matter how many vampires did that to her, she would never get used to it without warning.

The three of them stood there, dressed to the nines in Versace and Armani but uncompromising on their crimson and black color scheme from before.

"Fiore," Marcus greeted, smile soft and charming on his young face.

She stared at them, solidifying her resolve, and gestured for them to follow her inside her home.

"Without your guards," she added when she spotted them in the courtyard.

They followed behind her and politely took off their shoes this time before she led them into the living room, drawing the curtains to block their guard's view. They sat down on her sofa, looking pleased as cats who caught the cream and she sat across from them, out of reach.

"And what prompted you to give in, cara mia?" Aro smiled, teeth peeking over the red of his lips, pale skin radiant beneath her white lights.

"Curiosity. And like I said, I'll listen to your explanation." She held up her fingers. "On several conditions."

"Anything you ask of us, fiore, and we will abide by."

"Whatever I decide here and now, you'll agree to it," she said. "You will not use your supernatural abilities on me, at all, and you'll stay where you are. At all times."

"How delightful." Aro folded his hands over his thighs. "Such simple rules."

Caius remained suspiciously quiet but Arlen ignored his seeking gaze, lingering over her as if his eyes were hands, gently caressing her.

"That's not an agreement," she said. "Either you agree to my terms or I won't listen to you at all."

"We agree to anything you wish, amore," Caius finally spoke up, "as long as it means you will listen to us."

Arlen shifted further back into her sofa, as if the cushions could soften whatever they were about to say to her or shield her from them. If only she could take Udon out of his tank and wrap him around her wrist or neck for a little more comfort but she didn't want to have to protect her snake and herself from them. And animals, even snakes, weren't comfortable around vampires. Especially old ones who no longer bothered to act like they were humans. "You can start talking then."

"What do you know about vampire mates, cara?" Aro leaned forward.

This, again?

She pursed her lips. "Every vampire has a mate, for reasons unknown, but once they meet, the bond is formed forever. They're eternally bound through the soul and should one die, the other half finds themselves half-dead."

"A passable amount of knowledge," he commented.

She couldn't even tell if it was a half-hearted compliment or passive-aggressive insult or neither. "I don't see what this has to do with me."

"We have told you. You are our mate," Caius said, reverently. "The other half to our souls, molded perfectly to complete us and we have searched for you, amore."

"He does not lie." Marcus' soft gaze melted into her, as if he could see through her. "Our bonds with you are golden and eternal, fiore. The bond of mates. You know of my gift, yes?"

"I'm supposed to believe that?" she asked, unimpressed. "Then why don't I feel it and isn't the rule a _single _mate?"

"Oh, cara, we exist and yet you must confine yourselves to the mortal idea of monogamy?" Aro sighed. "And you are but mortal, dear Arlen. Humans do not experience the world as we do."

She rolled the idea around in her mind, frowning at them as they stared at her, overeager and expectant.

There were no good outcomes if they were telling the truth and that was only if they were telling the truth. But what did they have to gain by lying about something as serious as this? Vampires took their matings seriously. It wasn't rare for mates to find each other in the vampire world but the Volturi Kings hadn't found theirs in the thousands of years of existing and somehow their luck accumulated all into her? Some internet model girl that streamed video games and looked pretty as a career? She wasn't a life-changing or powerful figure like Empress Wu Zeitan or Empress Myeongseong. On top of all that, she wasn't even friends with them much less in love.

But then, if they were telling the truth, she had to consider the options there.

They'd expect her to follow them to Volterra and become a vampire, forever live a life of secrecy.

No matter what happened, every option but one ended up with that as a conclusion. They might even turn her into a vampire to force her into feeling the bond and tying her to them.

"Hypothetically, you're telling the truth." She broke her silence. "What happens?"

"We will fake your death and you may return to Volterra with us and become a vampire whenever you wish, amore," Caius said.

"And what if I didn't want to do that?"

"We are willing to give you time, cara," Aro said smoothly, "as long as you're accompanied by our guard and one of us, you may travel outside of Volterra."

"I meant what if I'm not willing to become a vampire or go to Volterra. What then? I have a human life here outside of this hypothetical scenario."

Caius' eyes narrowed. "Those are not viable paths for you to take, amore."

"And why not?" she challenged. "After all, you said I'm unaffected by the bond. I don't feel it at all and as far as I'm concerned, I don't know you. Why should I give up my life to assuage whatever it is you feel?"

Marcus met her gaze, burgundy eyes piercing as if he were peeling away her skin and flesh to find the marrow of her bones. "Perhaps, fiore, you will change your mind with time. You have not known us long and you are speaking rather rashly, are you not?"

"I'm not leaving my friends or the life I've built for something that isn't even my problem to begin with. You being affected by the mating bond is _your _problem. Not mine. I didn't ask for it."

Caius snapped. "You are the mate to the Volturi Kings and we cannot risk you. As you've said, if you were to die, we would wither away. Your human friends will not last the century. Time will erase the memory of them. You will come with us now or in the future."

"So, you'll force me to Volterra whether I want to go or not?" Arlen said, fingers digging into the soft of her thighs.

Just as she thought but the fact he put weight behind her unvoiced notions unsettled her. She was just another human without Vince there and he didn't even know the Volturi Kings were in her living room. If he had, he would've dumped her into the cold water beneath the Lion's Gate Bridge for being stupid and inviting the same people who broke her wrist into her home.

Marcus touched the top of Aro's hand.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Of course not, fiore," Marcus said gently, "but we cannot survive without you."

"But I can survive without you."

Aro laughed, almost shrill if it weren't for that damnable vampire perfection. "You are playing a dangerous game, dear Arlen."

As if she didn't already know that, judging by snarl Caius' face was set in.

"Tell us, cara, why won't you come to Volterra instead of infuriating Caius more than you already have?" Aro smoothed out his suit. "I do so love games but I cannot say the same for my brothers. I believe you try their patience."

_Just as you try mine, _went unsaid.

"It's my life you're asking me to abandon, for one." She adjusted herself, almost shifting further away from them. "The other is my freedom. You're asking me to let your guard monitor everything I'm doing while one of you follows me around and hypothetically, I wouldn't be allowed to live my own life. You'd shackle me with an anchor to Volterra in every scenario, wouldn't you? After all, if I get hurt, so do you."

"And what if we gave you everything you wished for? Would you come with us then? You may do all the things you wish if you were one of us, cara."

"You didn't let me finish." Arlen gripped the sofa beneath her. "Who said I wanted to live forever?"

Aro's eyes narrowed before a pleasant smile broke out on his face once more. "You must repeat that, dear Arlen."

"What if I don't want to become a vampire at all?" she said. "What if I don't want to live forever? If I go with you, no matter what happens, you won't let that be an option, would you? I wouldn't be allowed to choose my fate because you don't think it's my choice to make."

No matter what happened, Arlen knew, they wouldn't let her die. If the mating bond was real, that wasn't an option. They would wither away, without a doubt, but how much of that was their undying love for power over other vampires? If she was their mate, did they come after her because she was a liability or would they hide her in the dungeons of their castle, their greatest weakness taken off the chessboard and hidden as if she was some unsightly creature from nightmares. Her choices wouldn't matter then.

"I believe you will change your mind with time once you understand the greatness that comes with immortality, cara."

"Another thing you haven't taken into consideration," Arlen said, staring into her teacup. "You don't know me."

"As you do not know us."

"That's not what I meant." She paused and considered her words carefully, taking in each of their expressions before she set down her cup of tea on the table between them. Arlen was a human being but if she was truly their mate and not the byproduct of her powers warping their perception of her then that changed everything. She had the power to devastate them with her death just like they had the power to destroy her life. "The Volturi Kings are known to be callous and heartless."

"It is necessary for us to rule, cara." Aro's smile was almost robotic, more of a pull than a curve, and his canines glided over his bottom lip, red as blood.

A charmingly threatening look.

"If I'm your mate..."

She squared her shoulders and met their gazes evenly.

"...how do you know I'm not the same?"

* * *

In the end, she had asked them to leave, any traces of her emotions frozen over like the tundras in the far north of Canada during the coldest months.

But, she had not handed out a verdict over the information they gave her. Merely asked them to leave her alone and stop watching her. Marcus settled into the sea drift of his thoughts, letting the tides slow and pull away, dragging him further away from the sands of his mind. He carefully considered each expression she made, chafing over her words as if he could reveal the hidden meanings if he wore them away long enough. Perhaps Aro's ability would've come in useful at such a time but he was unable to read her mind and they were left lost at sea.

_"The Volturi Kings are known to be callous and heartless..."_

_"...if I'm your mate, how do you know I'm not the same?"_

An almost unheard of provocation. Something that surely aggravated and stung like newborn's bite into his brothers but they were not of a gentler stock. Marcus noticed the hesitation and distress tensing their mate's shoulders. His brothers were heedless in terms of emotions, including their own, and he was not surprised at their inability to discern the difference between anger and panic. He doubted their mate was able to either. She was more alike to Caius and Aro than him, he thought wryly.

Didyme had taught him many things but the others had not enlightened his brothers with such knowledge, something he would wait to gloat about when their tempers calmed.

Caius fumed just as Aro brooded beneath his cheerful veneer, their thoughts tumultuous, but he existed as the still-water lake between their wildfire anger and torrential flooding. Arlen's words had given them much to think about but he doubted the weight behind them. The fear curving her spine when they had cornered her with their words nearly drowned him with shame.

"We should have taken her with us," Caius snarled. "Why play these games with her if she refuses to come with us?"

"Many reasons, brother." Aro cleared his throat needlessly. "Do you wish to shatter the mating bond until it is irreparable? I am quite sure we can act with haste and make it happen."

"There is no need to needle him, Aro." Marcus mediated. "And you must heed your words, Caius, if you do not wish for her to resent us."

"We are running out of time." Caius growled and adjusted his cuff links. "If we do not return to Volterra within the fortnight to rule then our enemies will take notice and we cannot afford to lose her."

"Rushing her, brother, will do us no good as we have witnessed." Aro looked back at the mansion hidden by trees and walls, wistful. "I have several plans but first, you must refrain from destroying your clothes. Marcus, how is the bond?"

He held out his hand and let Aro dive into his mind, searching his thoughts, gliding over what he deemed useless and picking at the strings of the golden bond stretching further and further as they left their mate behind her walls, the black on her end withering like a dying tree's gnarled branch.

* * *

hello, i'm kind of back. do you want to know who was a clown and jinxed herself? i'm using the desktop version on my phone and not the mobile app. it can't format the way i need it to. my laptop died while i was working on this and i can't afford a new one and unfortunately i don't have a lot of free time. everything irl (jobs, finals, bills, etc) took precedent before this. hopefully i'll get enough christmas and chinese new year money to buy a new laptop but if not then i guess i'll just suffer.

but anyway i'm really thankful for all the reviews and private messages. i'll address one thing however! yes, arlen's personal, real life abilities are based off a famous social media celebrity from china. also, yes, i'm hinting towards something.


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